New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday welcomed a major announcement by AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest pension fund, to invest 500 million Australian dollars into India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). The Prime Minister emphasized that the significant financial commitment serves as a powerful demonstration of global trust and confidence in India’s ongoing economic growth story and reform trajectory.
The landmark investment was officially announced by AustralianSuper Chief Executive Officer Paul Schroder during the high-level India-Australia CEO Forum and Economic Roadmap Business reception held in Melbourne. Prime Minister Modi attended the business reception as part of his official three-day diplomatic visit to Australia.
Expressing his appreciation on his official X handle, Prime Minister Modi noted that the AU$500 million investment provides a clear glimpse of the international community’s deep confidence in India’s shifting economic landscape. He stated that the move reflects the immense, high-value opportunities that India’s dynamic economy continuously offers to global investors looking for stable returns. With this fresh injection of capital, the premier Australian pension fund—which manages over 410 billion Australian dollars in total global assets—now holds a substantial 3.3 billion Australian dollars in total holdings across various asset classes within India.
This latest financial commitment builds upon an established and successful relationship between the pension fund and India’s infrastructure sector. AustralianSuper initially ventured into the NIIF in 2019 with an investment of 240 million Australian dollars, a move that the fund subsequently recognized as one of its top-performing infrastructure investments globally.
According to AustralianSuper Chief Investment Officer Shaun Manuell, the fresh capital deployment underscores the fund’s unwavering faith in India’s long-term growth prospects, demographic advantages, and macroeconomic policy environment. Manuell described their partnership with the NIIF as one of their most successful collaborations to date, noting that their positive experience proves what can be accomplished when long-term capital is successfully combined with visionary policy, trusted domestic institutions, and strong bilateral partnerships.
Manuell further outlined that India remains an exceptionally attractive investment destination due to its robust economic growth, policy consistency, and a rapidly expanding middle class. He credited the Indian government with enacting reforms that make it significantly easier for large international institutions to deploy capital successfully. He concluded that AustralianSuper chose to double down on its commitment to the NIIF precisely because those fundamental structural strengths remain intact, paving the way to drive superior long-term returns for the fund’s millions of members.
