CII Proposes India Development And Strategic Fund: 'Need Perpetual Source Of Capital Beyond Budget'
Envisioned as a structural, perpetual source of long-term capital beyond the annual budget cycle, the proposed IDSF aims to provide India with an enduring financial engine for development.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has proposed the creation of an India Development and Strategic Fund (IDSF), a sovereign-backed, professionally managed twin-arm fund to finance India’s long-term growth and secure its strategic economic interests.
Envisioned as a structural, perpetual source of long-term capital beyond the annual budget cycle, the proposed IDSF aims to provide India with an enduring financial engine for development and global competitiveness.
The fund would comprise two distinct but coordinated arms: The Developmental Investment Arm would focus on financing long-gestation domestic priorities such as infrastructure, clean energy, MSME scale-up, education, healthcare, and urban infrastructure.
The Strategic Investment Arm would acquire and secure overseas assets critical to India’s economic and security needs, including energy resources, critical minerals, frontier technologies, and logistics assets.
According to CII, the IDSF could build a managed corpus of $1.3–2.6 trillion by 2047, mobilised through a mix of budgetary seed capital, proceeds from asset monetisation, and partial transfer of government equity in select public sector units (PSUs). The fund could also issue green, infrastructure, and diaspora bonds to raise patient domestic and global capital.
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CII has called for a statutory India Development and Strategic Fund Act to define the fund’s mandate, capital sources, and governance framework. While retaining majority government ownership, the IDSF would be run by a professional board with separate investment committees for its developmental and strategic arms.
CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said India must "build its own enduring financial engine for development" to achieve developed-economy status by 2047. "This isn’t about more borrowing, it’s about better capital structuring," he noted.
Positioned as a nation-building instrument for India’s Amrit Kaal, the IDSF aligns with the government’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision to finance growth with stability, purpose, and strategic foresight.
