Presentation by Mr. Nasser Munjee
Date: 9 July 2008
Venue: Conference Room, NIUA, New Delhi
Mr.
Nasser Munjee, among the most prominent names in the field of retail
housing finance and infrastructure financing in India, visited NIUA and
had an informal talk with the research fraternity of the Institute. In his
motivational talk, he began with a brief profile of himself.
Nasser Munjee is an economist and obtained his Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics. He was with Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC) since its inception. His primary responsibility was resource mobilization, research, publications, training, communication, and managing the centre for housing finance. Later, he shifted as the Managing Director & CEO, Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited, India (IDFC). IDFC aimed to promote private financing of infrastructure projects in India with a mission statement to lead private capital to commercially viable infrastructure projects. He was instrumental in introducing innovative project finance techniques for infrastructure investments, as well as private financing of public infrastructure to India.
He spoke passionately about Indian cities, which are metaphors of anarchy, owing to weak governance, a plethora of institutions for the city without an overall vision and absence of strong ownership.
He urged that the level of urban infrastructure development in India has to be upgraded, and modalities of public-private initiatives have to be fully tapped in the sector. Bombay First was one of the initial initiatives, which aims to make the city a better place. It aims to generate corporate money to raise city agenda and serve the city through partnerships with government, business and civil society. Citing Mumbai, he mentioned that critical space plans are very vital for cities. Mumbai midland is a critical revival space and needs urgent care and planning. Improved governance institutions, modernized planning processes as well as accurate database and a vision for future are essential for cities in India to re-orient.
While concluding, he mentioned about Metro Infrastructure & Project Solutions India Pvt. Ltd- a company, which he chairs. It provides project management solutions in urban infrastructure, transportation and real estate. One of its projects includes creating a template for two cities- Marmagao and Jodhpur. He argued that two mantras of success were: firstly, create an action agenda and other to nurture a clear vision, which is simple and attainable.
The meeting ended with thanks to him and the participants.