About NIIF

• National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) is an Indian-government backed entity established in 2016 to provide long-term capital to the country’s infrastructure sector. It was established with a planned corpus of ₹40,000 crore.
• The NIIF aims to maximize the economic impact mainly through infrastructure development in commercially viable projects such as greenfield and brownfield, including stalled projects. 

It would also consider other nationally important projects in manufacturing, if commercially viable. 

• • The Indian government has 49 per cent stake in NIIF with the rest held by foreign and domestic investors. NIIF is India’s first sovereign wealth fund.

• Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are pools of assets owned and managed directly or indirectly by governments to achieve national objectives.

• • NIIF got registered with SEBI as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). 

• AIFs are private funds which are otherwise not coming under the jurisdiction of any regulatory agency in India. In India, AIFs are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012.

• NIIF currently manages three funds each with its distinctive investment mandate.
  • Master Fund
    • It primarily invests in operating assets in core infrastructure sectors such as transportation and energy. 
  • Fund of Funds
    • This fund invests in funds managed by fund managers in infrastructure and associated sectors. Sectors of focus include Green Infrastructure, Mid-Income & Affordable Housing, Infrastructure services and allied sectors.
  • Strategic Fund
    • This fund is aimed at growth and development-stage investments in large scale projects/companies in a broad range of sectors of economic and commercial importance, which are likely to benefit from India’s growth trajectory over the medium- to long-term.

Why in News?

• The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund has entered into a collaboration with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to unveil a $600 million India-Japan Fund.
• The fund will have JBIC and Government of India as anchor investors.
• It will focus on investing in environmental sustainability and low carbon emission strategies and aims to play the role of being a ‘partner of choice’ to further enhance Japanese investments into India.
• The announcement marks NIIF’s first bilateral fund, with GoI contributing 49% of the target corpus and the remaining 51% contributed by JBIC.
• The setting up of the India-Japan Fund represents a key milestone in the strategic and economic partnership between the Japanese government and GoI.

https://www.thehindu.com/business/niif-unveils-600-mn-india-japan-fund/article67381295.ece