The World Bank: IFC to invest $10 billion annually in India by 2030
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, plans to scale up its annual investments in India to USD 10 billion by 2030, eyeing bets in sectors such as renewable energy, urban infrastructure and financial services, the media reported on Friday.
Annual investments in India by IFC have risen from USD 1.3 billion in 2021-22 to about USD 5.4 billion in 2024-25, Imad Fakhoury, its South Asia Regional Director, was quoted as saying.
“We very much remain committed to our path in India in spite of all the changes that might be happening, the uncertainties that might take place,” he said.
“We’re very focused on staying the course because India is also staying the course.”
India is IFC’s largest investment destination globally, with a portfolio of about USD 10.3 billion as of the financial year ended June 2025 across equity and debt investments.
In recent years, IFC has backed companies in India across sectors from banking and housing finance to manufacturing and those linked to climate.
These include investments in lenders such as Manappuram Finance, Federal Bank and PNB Housing Finance in the financial services sector as well TVS Emerald in real estate, and agribusiness platforms such as Leap Agri Silos.
Equity investments make up more than a third of IFC’s India portfolio, Fakhoury said.
Municipal bonds
The IFC is also the world’s largest development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets, leveraging investments to drive growth. It acts as a Development Finance Institution (DFI), providing loans, equity, and advisory services to projects, often utilizing blended finance to catalyse private capital in challenging markets.
It is also in talks with Indian states and urban local bodies to invest in municipal bonds, Fakhoury said.
Municipal bonds are debt securities issued by local governments or municipalities to raise funds for public infrastructure projects such as roads and water supply.
“We’ve signed multiple mandates in multiple states,” he said, adding that IFC could act as an anchor investor to mobilise private funding, with an eye to creating pooled bonds for cities that may be more or less creditworthy.
Such a pooled bond structure would allow cities to jointly raise funds and attract private investors.
In September 2025, the DFI committed financing of USD 60 million for water and wastewater projects in the southern port city of Visakhapatnam, in its first such direct lending to an Indian city.
“This is a replicable model that is going to move in the direction of expanding municipal commercial bonds in India, which are very much underdeveloped as a market,” Fakhoury added.
