About Us
Management Team
Mr. Shiva Rajaraman
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Shiva Rajaraman is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIIF Infrastructure Finance Limited (NIIF IFL). He has over 26 years of experience in infrastructure finance, innovative & sustainable funding, and advisory.
In his previous role as founder CEO & Wholetime Director of L&T Infra Debt Fund Limited (L&T IDF), one of India’s leading Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDF) with an excellent quality asset base, he built and led a top-notch team in introducing innovative financing and credit enhancement solutions to PPP projects in renewable energy, roads, and transmission sectors. The L&T IDF team was able to procure bond & equity investor funding from key national and international investor groups including long term focussed pension/ provident/ insurance funds. At L&T Financial Services (LTFS), he was part of the leadership team which managed one of India’s largest (USD ~ 3 bn) high quality debt-financed renewable energy portfolios aggregating ~ 6000 MW and one of the largest quality road refinance portfolios.
Shiva is a member of the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee (IMSC) of the Government of India, set up for implementation of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). He has been a member of several expert groups and national committees, including the Project Finance Sub-Group for the NIP and the Expert Group constituted by the Ministry of Finance for guiding rating agencies to developing a new framework for rating infrastructure projects. He has also been a member of Infrastructure Committees of CII, FICCI, IVCA (industry associations) and a Director on the Board of Feedback Infrastructure (a leading infrastructure services company) and Indian Highway Management Company Ltd (IHMCL), a company promoted by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) along with other institutions, which has implemented electronic tolling solutions in India.
Prior to joining L&T Financial Services, he worked with India’s specialised infrastructure financier IDFC (now IDFC Bank) for nearly 10 years, in various positions in Project Finance and Risk. He started his career with the Equity Group of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (now Commerzbank).
Shiva is an established subject matter expert and trainer in the field of infrastructure finance. He has a passion for teaching and conducts training programs for young professionals, senior government and RBI officials. He has a keen interest in history and enjoys playing chess.
Shiva holds a Bachelors’ degree in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai, and an MBA from Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli, India.
Mr. Debabrata Mukherjee
Chief Business Officer
Debabrata joined the Company in August 2015. He is primarily responsible for business development, fund raising, overseeing the evaluation and delivery of investment and credit proposals and portfolio performance.
In a career spanning over 29 years in financial services, Debabrata has worked with leading Indian and global institutions across corporate and project finance, special situation investments, advisory services and investment banking. He has worked on all forms of capital - debt, mezzanine and equity and has been involved in evaluating, advising, structuring and funding of projects with capital outlay of over US$ 10 billion. In his previous role, Debabrata was a Senior Director in the project finance business of IDFC Ltd. where he led debt and structured investments across diverse sectors in the infrastructure domain including transport, social infrastructure, hospitality, industrial and commercial real estate. He also worked on special situation investments and corporate advisory transactions in IDFC, advising infrastructure developers in power, transport and telecom sectors on business plan and investment opportunities, bidding for PPP projects, risk mitigation and financial structuring. Prior to joining IDFC, Debabrata worked in the areas of corporate finance and investment banking and held key positions in ASK Raymond James, BNP Paribas and SBI Capital Markets. He led and managed transactions for several Indian business houses and multinational clients across a wide range of products spanning M&A, equity and debt capital markets and structured finance. Debabrata holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
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Mr. Srinivas Upadhyayula
Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel
Srinivas Upadhyayula is presently the “Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel” of NIIF Infrastructure Financial Limited. Prior to this assignment Srinivas has worked as a Senior Director (Legal & Compliance) in the Special Situations Management Group (SSMG) of IDFC Ltd. Srinivas has more than 30 years of rich experience in legal, documentation of project & non-project finance, corporate finance and infrastructure finance documentation, including litigation management & recovery management in the Banking and Financial sector. He is having expertise in leading the delinquent accounts, recovery planning and in regular reviewing of the non-performing assets of the loan portfolio to identify trends and significant changes for effective recovery and financial restructuring and a structuring of the loans.
Prior to IDFC Limited, Srinivas was working with Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd (Arcil) (the first Asset Reconstruction Company established in India and is a prominent player in the Distressed Assets) as Senior Vice-president & Group Head – Legal.
Srinivas started his career as an Advocate on Civil and Labour side in the District Courts of Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam. He then worked with Sterling Tree Magnum (India) Ltd (a Sterling group company), and as Law officer in Canara Bank & as Deputy General Manager (Legal) IDBI Bank Ltd.
He has completed his Bachelor of Laws with specialisation in Company Law and Banking Law from Andhra University. He has completed post graduate diploma in Industrial Relation and Personnel Management from Bharatiya Vidyabhavan. He has also completed his CAIIB.
His interests include tracking the stock market & reading of various magazines and articles on litigation.
Mr. Ajay Singh
Chief Risk Officer
Mr. Ajay Singh has completed his Post Graduate Degree in Management from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore and is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. He has around 22+ years of experience in risk, credit, and business functions in infrastructure sector. He has 3+ years of experience in Larsen & Toubro after his B.Tech.
He started his career into infrastructure financing from IDFC handling Business Development and Credit Function in the Project Finance team at IDFC Ltd. Thereafter, he became a Principal and Director in the Credit Risk team.
Since 2012, he has worked in Aditya Birla Finance Limited (ABFL) heading Credit Risk and Compliance where he was responsible for Risk of infrastructure loan portfolio including developing risk framework within the infrastructure sector and compliance with statutory and regulatory guidelines.