After a six-month recession-induced lull, India Inc is finally heaving a sigh of relief, with its debentures and equity issues finding some takers.

If trends over the past few weeks are taken into account, it shows that banks no longer are shying away from financing new projects and more importantly, foreign investors are finding their way back to India.

Private and foreign banks are yet to come forward in a big way, however, public sectors banks are forward –looking and have already started financing projects.

As a consequence, funding to the tune of Rs.58, 000 crore for large projects has already been managed in the last six weeks.

The list includes Indian Oil’s Paradip refinery (Rs 14,900 crore), State Bank of India’s loan to NTPC (Rs 8,500 crore), Krishnapattnam Port (Rs 3,000 crore), BGR Energy’s engineering, procurement and construction work (Rs 4,000 crore), SBI’s loans to Vodafone (Rs 10,000 crore) and the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group’s three projects (Rs 14,500 crore for the Sasan Ultra Mega Power project, Rs 2,000 crore for Delhi Metro Express and around Rs 1,000 crore for transmission projects in the west).

And it’s not just infrastructure developers who are profiting, companies such as Tata Motors are also finding takers. According to sources, the auto major had placed its entire debenture issue -Rs. 4,200 –crore in a day.

JP Associates, a construction major is apparently looking forward to raise nearly Rs.4,000 crore from debentures. In the aftereffect of September crises, when several global investment banks collapsed under the sub-prime loan crises in the West- companies had to go for non-convertible debentures to meet the funding requirements. In April, NCD issues worth Rs.25, 000 crore were raised collectively by the companies.

There are indications that equity market is also looking up. Bankers projected that over Rs 40,000 crore of rights, QIP and debenture issues are in the pipeline.

Over the past weeks, Indiabulls, DLF and Unitech-all real estate players-have together raised Rs.8,000 crore by way of qualified institutional placements (QIPs).It is also estimated that less risky sectors will attract investment more easily from foreign investors.

India bulls raised Rs.2, 585 through QIP. According to top sources at India bulls, companies with good assets and good track record on returns to shareholders can easily raise funds. But the gates are not open for all and sundry.

Indiabulls Power Services is looking to raise around Rs.5,200 crore of debt in the upcoming months and has already pocked Rs. 800 crore, through equity.

Things are likely to look up in the near future. According to officials at India Infrastructure Finance Company, investment in infrastructure will pick up. It was supposed to start early, but shelved due to election process. The National Highway Authority of India had stopped awarding new projects due to the election code of conduct, but is expected to start soon.

The benign interest rates will make infrastructure projects more economically practical. And with enough liquidity in the system, there will be no dearth of resources, the official further added.

According to government projections, infrastructure projects to the tune of Rs.46,000 crore will be awarded in the upcoming months.

Though the companies will be still under pressure and demand remains passive, the bankers say that worst appears to be over, as far as the domestic market is concerned.

"The mood was really down in the last quarter of 2008. By mid-January, it had started improving and by March there was clear visibility of the mood changing," ICICI Bank Chairman K V Kamath informed Business Standard in a recent interview.