Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised leveraging public funds to catalyse private sector investment in infrastructure, announcing new financing tools and a substantial asset monetisation pipeline to bolster long-term development projects.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said public money should be used to draw in private investment rather than replace it, as the government steps up efforts to make infrastructure projects more attractive to lenders and long-term investors. Speaking at a seminar in Jaipur on the sidelines of the BRICS finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ meeting, she said India had built a range of tools to make projects more bankable, from viability gap funding and the hybrid annuity model to credit enhancement, infrastructure investment trusts and the National Infrastructure Pipeline.
Her comments come as the government has already raised ₹52,716.02 crore from disinvestment in the current fiscal year, according to data from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management. That total includes ₹31,514.89 crore from selling a 6.5% stake in Life Insurance Corp. of India, along with proceeds from Coal India and NHPC. The figures underline the Centre’s continuing effort to recycle public assets and use the proceeds to support fresh capital spending.
Business Standard reported earlier this year that the government has also moved to deepen asset monetisation, unveiling the second phase of the National Monetisation Pipeline with a target of ₹16.72 trillion between FY26 and FY30. The plan covers more than 2,000 assets in sectors including highways, power, ports and railways, and is meant to free up resources for new projects while limiting pressure on the budget. Sitharaman has separately proposed an Infrastructure Risk Guarantee Fund to provide partial credit support and reduce financing risk for private players.
The finance minister said the latest Union Budget continued that push, with capital expenditure for FY27 set at ₹12.22 trillion, up 11.5% from the revised FY26 estimate. The spending plan includes new freight corridors, high-speed rail corridors, steps to operationalise national waterways and a coastal cargo promotion scheme. Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur said the wider challenge for development finance is not just raising money, but building frameworks that can last through changing conditions and help mobilise private capital over the long term.
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