State Bank of India (SBI) sees significant investment opportunities emerging in sectors such as data centres, semiconductors, green hydrogen and small modular reactors, as India embarks on a new phase of infrastructure and industrial development.
Speaking during the bank’s earnings call, CS Setty, chairman, SBI said transmission infrastructure would be among the largest themes in the years ahead, with several large projects already under discussion.
“Transmission is going to be one of the most important infrastructure which is going to be developed. Some of the projects are fairly large. We have been having discussion with them,” Setty said.
While the exact financing structures for these projects are yet to be finalised, he indicated that multiple models are being evaluated.
“What kind of structures they will come out is not very clear yet. Whether there will be an SPV or it will be done by their own companies. But there is a good opportunity coming up there,” he added.
Beyond transmission, SBI is preparing to finance a range of emerging industries through a dedicated initiative called CHAKRA. According to Setty, the programme has been designed to support sunrise sectors that are expected to attract substantial capital over the coming decade.
“We have started an initiative called CHAKRA. This is to support all sunrise sectors, whether it is green hydrogen or whether it is data centres, whether it is new renewable energy models which are emerging. Or even small modular reactors which government has been talking about, semiconductors,” he said.
The SBI chairman noted that traditional lending products may not adequately meet the requirements of these sectors, many of which are capital intensive and technologically complex.
“These are all the activities and sectors probably which have greater potential for investment. But they need a separate kind of structure. It is not a pure vanilla loan which they require,” Setty said.
He explained that projects in these industries may require a blend of debt, mezzanine financing and equity participation.
“They may require a mezzanine funding, they may require equity funding. So, we want to handle that kind of composite structures through our CHAKRA,” he said.
The comments signal SBI’s intention to expand its role beyond conventional banking and position itself as a financing partner for India’s next generation of technology, energy and digital infrastructure projects.
