The Rs.111 trillion National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), which was launched with 6,835 projects, has now expanded to 7,400 projects, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget 2021 speech on 1 February 2021. Sitharaman highlighted that around 217 projects worth Rs.1.1 trillion under some key infrastructure ministries have been completed. The government has proposed three ways to increase funding for NIP projects, both from the government and the financial sector. Firstly, by setting up a professionally managed Development Financial Institution, secondly, by laying emphasis on monetising assets and thirdly by enhancing the share of capital expenditure in central and state budgets.
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