IDFC signed an agreement on Friday with the two academic institutions to bring out an annual infrastructure development report.

Apart from providing an up-to-date status of infrastructure in the country, the report will also focus on the best practices followed elsewhere to resolve problems faced by developers, providers of infrastructure services and financing institutions.

IDFC chairman Deepak Parikh told reporters here on Friday that emphasis of the partnership would be to lead intellectual capital to formulate commercially viable infrastructure projects in India.

The IDFC will provide a pre-determined financial commitment to the network for a period of two years. It will also provide a research agenda and a marketing platform for the network.

In due course, it is expected that the network would receive cooperation from sector specific research institutions, management, science and technological institutions and other IITs and IIMs, and international institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, said Parikh.

He added that the initiative will be an effective academic-industry interaction to ensure continuous demand for commercially oriented studies and research on infrastructure.

Main contribution of the two academic institutions will be in bringing the intellectual capital to private provisioning of infrastructure services.The network will address issues with a focus on synergy across different infrastructure sectors.