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PR Jaishankar, Managing Director of India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL), has set an ambitious target to double the company's lending to Rs 1 lakh crore within the next three years.
Speaking on the company's performance, he remarked, "Our disbursement is all about 150,000 crores. So our balance sheet today stands with a total size of about 80,000 crores, with loan books around 70,000 crores. So we would like to look at how we first achieve one lakh crores during the next few months itself, and then go to double it within the next three years." Jaishankar attributed the robust state of the infrastructure sector to the government's proactive reforms and financial initiatives. "The infrastructure stands at this robust position only because of the government's major push, both as major financiers and the push for reforms, propelling reforms, all have been, you know, at the government's, you know, initiatives. So the current budget also, we have the same optimistic expectations," he said. He added that the sector is entering a transformative phase. "We are entering the new age of infrastructure, version 2.0 with focus on digitally driven infrastructure, with focus on sustainability resilience and more on commercial viability and better risk management systems, better monitoring systems and better due diligence," he noted. Reflecting on improvements in the sector's financial health, Jaishankar praised the decline in non-performing assets (NPAs), which have drastically reduced. "NPAs had, during 2011-2010, it used to be around 36 per cent for the banking sector, which has now come down substantially because of the government's initiative and push and so many reforms have been there," he said. Highlighting IIFCL's own achievements, he stated, "We have reduced our NPA to less than 0.5 per cent today. So our NPAs used to be around 20 per cent about four or five years ago; we are now less than 0.5 per cent." Discussing project lending, he emphasised the safeguards in place to ensure transparency and efficiency. "Project lending always has been very, very safe, and it has been full of good governance structure, good risk management system, good accounting policy, above all, good due diligence process," he said. He credited the system's improvement to consortium-based financing, where multiple banks and committees scrutinize projects. "Infrastructure as a whole, seems to be the safest sector today to lead," he concluded. (ANI)
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