Context
The task force on National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) submitted its final report for the fiscal year 2019-25 to Union Finance Minister on April 29, 2020.
The summary of the report, prepared by the Task Force on National Infrastructure Pipeline for 2019-2025, was released by the Finance Minister on December 31, 2019.
This report carries the recommendations of the task force for the implementation of general and sectoral reforms relating to infrastructure by the centre and states.
What is National Infrastructure Pipeline?
- National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) is a first-of-its-kind government exercise to pave the way for world-class infrastructure across the nation and improve the quality of life of the people.
- The initiative aims to improve infrastructure project preparation and attract new investments both foreign and domestic. The project will play a significant role in fulfilling India’s goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy by FY 2025.
- The NIP report has been made based on the information collected from various stakeholders including the concerned ministries, departments, state governments and private sector.
- The NIP project database would be made available on India Investment Grid (IIG) soon to provide visibility to the NIP and help in its financing. All the prospective investors will be able to access updated project-level information on the grid.
- The central ministries and state departments would also be adding new projects and update their respective project details at pre-defined time intervals to ensure the updated data is available to the prospective investors.
What are key benefits of National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)
- Economy: Well-planned NIP will enable more infra projects, grow businesses, create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all, 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 in productive areas.
- Developers: Provides better view of project supply, provides time to be better prepared for project bidding, reduces aggressive bids/ failure in project delivery, ensures enhanced access to sources of finance as result of increased investor confidence.
- Banks/financial institutions (F1s)/investors: Builds investor confidence as identified projects are likely to be better prepared, exposures less likely to suffer stress given active project monitoring, thereby less likelihood of NPAs.
Source: TimesofIndia