National Infrastructure Pipeline(NIP)

Recently, the Union Minister for Finance inaugurated the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) Online Dashboard.

Highlights:

• The online dashboard is envisaged as a one-stop solution for all stakeholders looking for information on infrastructure projects in New India.
• The dashboard is being hosted on the India Investment Grid (IIG).
• IIG is an interactive and dynamic online platform that showcases updated & real-time investment opportunities in the country.

Projects include

• The report contains recommendations on general and sector reforms relating to key infrastructure sectors for implementation by the Centre and states.
• These projects will be implemented under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), a first of its kind exercise, by consulting states, relevant ministries and departments.
• Three committees will be set up to monitor project progress, eliminate delays, and find ways to raise resources, along with a steering committee in each of the infrastructure ministries.
  Sectors such as
  energy (24%),
  roads (18%),
  urban (17%)
  and railways (12%) amount to around 71% of the projected investments.
• The projects will also be spread across sectors such as irrigation, mobility, education, health, water and the digital sector.

About NIP:

• Union Finance Minister in the Budget speech 2019-20 had announced that Rs. 100 lakh crore would be invested on infrastructure over the next five years.
• NIP is based on the recommendation of the Atanu Chakraborty Task Force, with projected infrastructure investment of Rs 111 Lakh Crore during FY 2020-25.
• NIP is a first-of-its-kind, whole-of-government exercise to provide world-class infrastructure across the country and improve the quality of life for all citizens.
• It aims to improve project preparation, attract investments (both domestic and foreign) into infrastructure and will be crucial for target of becoming a $5 trillion economy by FY 2025.
• Aggregate the information provided by various stakeholders across infrastructure sub-sectors identified in the Harmonised Master List of Infrastructure.
• A bottom-up approach was adopted wherein all projects (Greenfield or Brownfield, Under Implementation or under conceptualization) costing greater than Rs 100 crore per project were sought to be captured.
• The NIP project database is on India Investment Grid (IIG), providing visibility to the NIP and helping in its financing with prospective investors; domestic and foreign, being able to access updated project-level information.
• Each line Ministry/State would further add new projects and update their respective project details at predefined time intervals so that updated data is available to prospective investors.

Key benefits of NIP

Economy
Well-planned NIP will enable more infrastructure projects, power business, create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all, thereby making growth more inclusive.

Government
Well-developed infrastructure enhances level of economic activity, creates additional fiscal space by improving revenue base of the government, and ensures quality of expenditure focused on productive areas.

Developers
Provides better-prepared projects, reduces aggressive bids/failure in project delivery, ensures enhanced access to sources of finance as a result of increased investor confidence.

Banks/financial institutions/investors
Builds investor confidence as identified projects are better prepared, exposures less likely to suffer stress given active project monitoring by competent authority, thereby ensuring better returns.

About India Investment Grid (IIG)

• India Investment Grid (IIG) is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT) Ministry of Commerce, Government of India and Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency.
• “New India has emerged as the world’s leading investment destination. The India Investment Grid (IIG) showcases a menu of investment options across India on a single interactive platform.
• An initiative to enhance the ease of doing business, IIG connects potential investors to project promoters across India.” 

Harmonized list of Infrastructure sub-sectors

• Harmonization of the existing definitions of infrastructure sectors will facilitate a coordinated approach, among agencies providing support to infrastructure, and, thus spur infrastructure development in a more optimal manner.
  Background:
• The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in 2009 had asked the Ministry of Finance to urgently consider and resolve the issue of uniform definition of infrastructure.
  The Ministry of Finance had thus moved a proposal for approval of CCI of a harmonized master list of 29 infrastructure sub-sectors and also for creating a framework and an institutional mechanism for its updation.

About the harmonized Master List of sub-sectors:

• Identified as infrastructure sub-sectors, the master list is meant to guide all the agencies responsible for supporting infrastructure in various ways.
• It has consciously been decided not to have a rigid and inflexible listing of sub-sectors, to be made universally applicable to all agencies.
• That is why, each financing agency shall be free to spell out its reasons and draw its own list of sub-sectors out of the Master List.
• If any agency is presently supporting a sector/sub-sector which is outside the harmonized Master List, it may continue to do so and the matter will be revisited after an appropriate period of time by the institutional mechanism.
• Update of Master List: The institutional mechanism to update the Master List and for revisiting the sub-sectors outside the Master List, will be done by a Committee chaired by Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs.