Infra funding takes centrestage at webinar

Captains of industry shared their ideas on Tuesday about infrastructure funding, inadequacies of the present system and way forward at “Financing National Infrastructure Pipeline”, the second webinar of the Infra-Nirbhar series organised by Construction World and Swarajya magazines. Dr TV Somanathan, Secretary (Expenditure), Union Ministry of Finance, was the keynote speaker.In his keynote address Somanathan explained why infrastructure finance cannot consider only an internal rate of return, but must look at it from a wider social returns perspective. To access the exclusive Q&A with Dr TV Somanathan, click:Infra projects need a leap of faith: SomanathanOther speakers at this webinar were:Bharat Parekh, Executive Director, Infrastructure Research, CLSAPalash Srivastava, Deputy CEO, IIFCLSudhir Hoshing, Joint MD, IRB InfraSuneet Maheshwari, Founder & Managing Partner, Udvik InfraDr Shubhada Rao, Founder, QuantEco Research (Co-Moderator)Pratap Padode, Editor-in-Chief, Construction World (Co-Moderator)The panel discussed the best ways of monetisation including through InVits, recovering from fiscal deficits, where to look for funding, and why credit enhancement needs the skill sets of the private sector.To access the full report and view the video playback of the webinar, click here.