According to the Bank’s website, the objective of this project is to enhance access to long-term capital markets for infrastructure financing in India through NaBFID's credit enhancement facility.

India faces a significant infrastructure financing gap, estimated at 4-5 percent of GDP annually, or roughly US$160 billion per year above current spending levels. While the government finances approximately 78 percent of existing infrastructure investment, this falls well short of the 8-10 percent of GDP required to meet long-term development goals through 2047. Two structural constraints drive this shortfall: a limited pipeline of bankable, well-prepared projects on the demand side, and an underdeveloped intermediation ecosystem on the supply side that prevents long-term domestic savings - held by pension funds, insurance companies, and provident funds - from being effectively deployed into infrastructure. Foreign participation remains similarly constrained by currency risk, limited hedging instruments, and the absence of credible borrowing histories among many Indian financial institutions active in the sector.

To address these gaps, the Government of India established the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) in 2021 as a dedicated development finance institution with a mandate to mobilize private and institutional capital, deepen bond markets, and reduce the rating and risk perception barriers that limit investor participation. NaBFID's balance sheet alone cannot close the financing gap, but it is strategically positioned to act as a catalytic platform - particularly through partial credit enhancement mechanisms that can multiply its impact by unlocking large pools of domestic patient capital without proportionately expanding public sector balance-sheet exposure.

Project UPLIFT operationalizes this vision by supporting NaBFID in launching a Credit Enhancement Facility (CEF) that provides irrevocable, subordinated, contingent credit support to eligible infrastructure bond issuers, thereby elevating their credit ratings into investment-grade territory and broadening access to long-tenor institutional capital. The World Bank Group - through IBRD loans and guarantees, alongside a MIGA Non-Honoring of Financial Obligations guarantee and parallel ADB financing - backstops CEF exposures, lowers regulatory capital requirements, and supports access to international investors. This "One WBG" approach is designed to crowd in private domestic and foreign capital at scale, lower borrowing costs, and extend debt maturities in line with infrastructure asset lives, directly advancing India's growth agenda while operationalizing the Country Partnership Framework's leveraging bank model.

The project’s environmental and social (E&S) risk is rated Substantial, reflecting the scale and complexity of underlying infrastructure activities in the portfolio and the involvement of multiple stakeholders.

Total Project Cost: US$ 3665.00 million
IBRD Commitment: US$ 30.00 million

The National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) is a specialized development finance institution in India founded in April 2021 to support long-term non-recourse infrastructure financing.

CONTACT POINT - World Bank

Task Team Leader: Tushar Arora
Title: Senior Infrastructure Finance Specialist
Email: tarora@worldbank.org

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