The investment announcement comes at a critical time for India, as economic growth is feared to be taking a heavy hit due to coronavirus

Mumbai: Multilateral institution Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday announced a USD 100 million funding for the Indian infrastructure sector through the government-promoted NIIF.

The Manila-based body will be investing in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund's (NIIF) fund of funds which will ensure that the actual money invested will be a few times more than the USD 100 million.

The investment announcement comes at a critical time for India, as the already sagging economic growth is feared to be taking a heavy hit due to the coronavirus pandemic.

ADB's commitment to NIIF fund of funds during these extraordinary and challenging times is highly meaningful, NIIF's managing director and chief executive Sujoy Bose said.

ADB's investment in NIIF will help catalyse institutional capital into domestic private equity funds in India, thereby contributing to greater availability of long-term growth financing for private sector companies and leading to the creation of quality jobs, social infrastructure development, and economic growth, its Vice President Diwakar Gupta said.

So far, it has made commitments to three funds aggregating to over Rs 2,600 crore or USD 350 million, the statement said.

The NIIF said its ability to crowd-in investments has also been established as these three funds have raised USD 1.1 billion from other sources.