Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said that the Government think-tank has recommended strategic disinvestment of 34 sick public sector units so far. Mr Kant was speaking at Crisil India Infrastructure Conclave in New Delhi.<br/>The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had asked the think-tank to look into the viability of sick state-run companies.<br/>The government has budgeted to raise 72,500 crore rupees through stake sale in PSUs in the current fiscal. This includes 46,500 crore rupees from minority stake sale, 15,000 crore rupees from strategic disinvestment and 11,000 crore rupees from listing of PSU insurance companies.<br/><br/>Speaking at the event, NITI Aayog CEO pitched for channelling insurance and pension funds for financing infrastructure projects as also for a complete re- examination of the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme. He said, Infrastructure sector has suffered in India due to under- investment for a long time. VGF is one-time grant to public-private-partnerships (PPPs) in the infrastructure sector to fill the funding gap for making projects commercially viable. <br/><br/>Mr Kant said, in last 3 years, government has put in lots of resources in building infrastructure like roads and airports, almost making up for private sector investment in such projects. <br/><br/><br/>The Niti Aayog CEO also stressed that India needs strong bids and concession evaluation mechanism of PPP infrastructure projects. He also said, if India wants wants to grow at 9-10 per cent then it must develop its infrastructure because countries like South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan grew on the back of good infrastructure.