Govt to track sovereign wealth fund investments

At the last meeting of the coordination committee on August 1 in Mumbai, it was felt there is merit in collecting and analysing data relating to SWF investments in India, before deciding whether the government needs to draw up a policy framework for such funds.

RBI has already defined an SWF as “a government investment vehicle, which is funded by foreign exchange assets, and which manages those assets separately from the official reserves of the monetary authorities”. Sebi, on its part, has also identified FIIs/sub-accounts that can be classified as SWFs. Sebi is compiling the investment data of SWF FIIs and will be sending this to the finance ministry on a monthly basis.

However, the committee meeting also highlighted the fact that data collection by RBI and Sebi may not cover indirect investments by SWFs through the FII/sub-account routes and would, therefore, provide only partial information. However, if there was any discernable pattern to the data, then a policy response could be drawn up.

The rapid growth and increase in the number of SWFs, the pace of asset accumulation and the sheer size and scope of these funds—putting them on par with some of the largest

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