NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JULY 29
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the Union Budget 2021 that there is a plan in place to establish a Development Financial Institution (DFI) that is exclusively meant for the funding of infrastructure. In light of this endeavour, the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, is inviting citizens across India to help them coin a name for the new entity. They are also asking citizens to come up with taglines and design a logo for the DFI.
Put on your creative hat and stand a chance of winning a cash prize of ₹5,00,000 for each category!
Participate in Name, Tagline and Logo contest for Development Financial Institution.
Visit: https://t.co/VdrHvzPCEb@PMOIndia @FinMinIndia @PIB_India @MIB_India pic.twitter.com/QVlfJ55Y7B
— MyGovIndia (@mygovindia) July 27, 2021
The entries are expected to signify the purpose, spirit and activities that are to be conducted by the Development Financial Institution. The entries will be taken in under the form of a competition where participants can win up to Rs 15 lakh.
Prize Details for the DFI Competition
The entries for the submissions are open till August 15, 2021. These entries will be evaluated on several criteria such as creativity, vibrancy, ability to connect with the theme. It should connect with all citizens, the spirit of this initiative as well as with stakeholders while reflecting the spirit of New India. This comes against the backdrop of the celebration of “Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsava’’.
After the entries close the winning entry will be awarded cash prizes of each of the three categories, which are the Name, Tagline and Logo design. Each category is also sub-divided into first place, second place and third place respectively. All the first-place prizes for each category, be it name, logo or tagline, would receive a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. Similarly for second place, the prize is Rs 3 lakh for each category and for third place the cash prize haul stands at Rs 2 lakh for each section.
The Purpose Behind the Development Financial Institution
This new innovative approach marks a first in India as banks have always been the primary source of funding for infrastructure. Now, this Development Financial Institution will be one of the only entities solely committed and oriented towards funding infrastructure development in the country.
This has been approved by Parliament through the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure & Development Act, 2021. The Infra DFI will function as a Development Bank with the backing of the government via mandates.
The DFI also promises not to exclude other lenders or try to push them out of the arena, but will instead crowd them according to information on the MyGov website. The aim is to roll out new projects, expand existing infrastructure and revitalize decrepit infrastructure. It is for this reason that the government has allocated Rs 111 lakh crore to this initiative and has parallelly identified over 7,000 projects to invest in by 2024 to 2025 under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).
Whilst being an enabler of credit towards the development of infrastructure, the entity will also act as a catalyst for a new ecosystem for infra-based collaborations and partnerships. The operations of the institution will be to prioritize risk mitigation, product innovation, accessing green and ethical funds as well as helping along the development of the bond market to make it more vibrant.
Keeping in mind that the Development Finance Institution is a funder for financial infra projects on a national scale and is backed by the government, it may not conform to the commercial standards of return according to a Bloomberg Quint report. Most government-owned or backed agencies enjoy the comfort of government guarantees, the report said.
