CII Proposes Six-Pronged Investment Roadmap for India’s Next Decade of Growth

New Delhi: Ahead of the Union Budget 2026–27, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday proposed a comprehensive six-pronged investment strategy focused on fiscal prudence, capital efficiency and strengthening investor confidence to sustain India’s long-term growth trajectory.

According to the apex industry body, sustained growth in public, private and foreign investments will be critical to maintaining India’s position as one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies.

“The forthcoming Union Budget 2026–27 has to serve the dual role of stabiliser and growth enabler, and promoting investments will be one of the most critical components in this regard,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.

The recommendations underline the importance of public capital expenditure as the backbone of infrastructure-led growth, alongside measures to unlock private and foreign investment through targeted incentives, institutional reforms and deeper global engagement.

As the first pillar, CII stressed the need to further strengthen public investment. Public capital expenditure has been a key driver of India’s post-pandemic recovery by accelerating infrastructure development and crowding in private capital. To sustain this momentum, CII has recommended increasing central capital expenditure by 12 per cent and capex support to states by 10 per cent in FY27, with a continued focus on high-multiplier sectors such as transport, energy, logistics and the green transition.

To improve project selection and execution, the industry body proposed institutionalising a Capital Expenditure Efficiency Framework (CEEF) to prioritise high-impact projects, monitor physical and financial progress, and evaluate outcomes based on productivity gains and regional spillovers.

CII also called for launching a Rs 150 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) 2.0 for the 2026–32 period, with a clearly defined pipeline of shovel-ready projects, including public-private partnership initiatives. Such a framework, it said, would provide multi-year certainty to investors, developers and states, while aligning fiscal policy with medium-term debt sustainability.

The second focus area is facilitating private investment. While public spending lays the foundation, CII noted that private and foreign capital will be the key accelerators of economic transformation.

“The government has provided a strong demand push through income tax relief in last year’s Union Budget and more recently via GST 2.0. Investments, especially private sector investment, should be the next major driver of growth in the coming fiscal,” Banerjee said.

Third, to attract long-term capital into priority sectors, CII proposed setting up an NRI Investment Promotion Fund. Envisioned as a government–private holding company with up to 49 per cent government stake, the fund would channel NRI, FPI and institutional investments into areas such as infrastructure and artificial intelligence. It could raise capital through long-term convertible bonds benchmarked to FCNR rates, including India Global Diaspora Bonds.

As the fourth measure, CII recommended strengthening the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) through the creation of a Sovereign Investment Strategy Council (SIFC) to align investments with national priorities, ensure strong governance standards and benchmark performance against leading global sovereign funds.

Fifth, the industry body suggested simplifying external commercial borrowing (ECB) norms by allowing higher borrowing limits, longer tenures and partial risk cover for infrastructure and manufacturing projects. It also proposed a single-window clearance mechanism for large foreign direct investment proposals, with deemed approvals within 60 to 90 days, supported by dedicated facilitation cells at the Centre and in the states.

Finally, to deepen global investor engagement, CII recommended establishing an India Global Economic Forum as a government-led platform to facilitate structured dialogue between senior policymakers and global investors, including multinational corporations, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and private equity players.

— With inputs from IANS