India to see $700-bn investment: Kamath

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New Delhi, January 13:: Anticipating a 700-billion-dollar investment pipeline for the country, ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO K V Kamath has said that corporates alone would infuse up to 500 billion dollars in the next three to four years.

"India has a strong investment pipeline. Currently, we are putting the pipeline at around 700 billion dollars. Till recently, we talked about 500 billion dollars," Kamath told PTI in an interview here.

More importantly, corporate cashflow itself would account for up to 500 billion dollars and the investment needs would not depend heavily on debts, as was the case about ten years ago, Kamath said. The time period for these investments to materialise is 3-4 years, he added.

While noting that the timeframe would depend on sectors where the money is going, he said: "If it is an hydroelectric project, (it would be) three and a half years; if it is some other investment, the time frame could be different... this (3-4 years) is an an average level."

The managing director of India's largest private lender said he does not see India's growth story slackening for another 15 years as there is a dramatic level of investment happening in the country.

"Just to put in context, about ten years back near 1995-96, if the national investment reached 15-20 billion dollars a year, we thought that was a tremendous improvement... We have raised the bar higher for ourselves.