NEW DELHI/MUMBAI - India is likely to issue at least $5 billion worth of bonds with no limits on foreign investment next year, in a bid to list the bonds on global indices and attract more foreign funds, according to two finance ministry sources.
“We have spoken to major index operators and we will start pushing these bonds in tranches very early in the first half of the next fiscal year itself,” the first official said. In September, Reuters reported the government was considering a special window free of any foreign investment cap for overseas passive investors.
However, Narayan said, “if it is only a few bonds, a full- fledged index inclusion will not happen. We will get a very small, negligible kind of weightage on the index, but it is a good way to start.” The move would reduce the amount of securities that would need to be bought purely by domestic participants by about 4.5% at the outset. India’s total planned borrowing for 2020/21 stands at $109.57 billion.