"We have plans to raise rupee resources for our investment activities in India," Eric D Cruikshank, manager South and South-east Asia department of IFC told PTI.

He said the corporation has initiated the process and may enter the market later next year.

Normally, IFC depends on funding by its member countries for funding requirements but has the history of raising funds from various countries to meet increasing funding needs. The corporation has raised funds from Hungary and Singapore in the past for its investment requirements for that country. Cruikshank said international rating agencies Moody's and Standard and Poor's have assigned `Triple A' rating for the corporation, which would help IFC in raising funds at very cheap rates.

IFC's rating at `AAA' is better than India'ssovereign rating at `Double B' for foreign currency and `Triple B' for local currency by Standard and Poor's.

Cruikshank said the corporation was working on the details including the amount to be raised, the timing among other things.

The World Bank's arm has about one billion dollar investments in India as equity and debt to various private corporates in the country.

Cruikshank said the corporation would be looking at private placement with financial institutions for its proposed debt issue in India.

Cruikshank said on an average IFC's investment in India is about $250 million per year, though there was no amount fixed as target on year-to-year basis.

"If IFC gets good proposals, we certainly would put our money in and we don't have a specific target every year," he said.

During the year-ending June, IFC hopes to touch about $90 million as investments into the country, he said and added that the low amount was mainly due to the sanctions imposed on India after the nuclear tests in May lastyear.

Recently, the IFC board has cleared three proposals envisaging a cumulative investment of $72 million in India.