In 2010, the government had set up a committee under HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh to review a proposal for a Rs. 50,000-crore __________ fund.

The government has set up a committee under HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh to review a proposal for an Rs 50,000-crore infrastructure debt fund. The proposed fund would be used to finance infrastructure projects that have begun commercial operations and could replace the existing practice of taking loans from commercial banks. The Planning commission had floated a concept paper in February to set up the fund that would help meet long-term needs of public private partnership projects (PPP) by tapping foreign and domestic pension and insurance funds, sovereign funds and multilateral institutions. The fund was conceptualised to address the need of infrastructure companies in India, that do not have access to loans of 10 to 20 years for long-term projects like developing airports and roads. Most commercial banks' loan tenure is less than 10 years. The government-promoted India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL), which was set up to facilitate lending for infrastructure projects, lends funds for roughly the same time period, since it works in consortium with banks.