New Delhi, Feb. 5 :    New Delhi, Feb. 5:  The D.N. Ghosh committee for restructuring the ailing state-owned IFCI has recommended the appointment of a strategic partner to help run the financial institution after a Rs 400-crore capital infusion, besides a time-bound plan to convert the financier into a term capital bank. The report which was made public today at a meeting organised by IFCI here, says the government could offer IDBI's equity holding of 31.7 per cent to a strategic partner in association with a global project finance heavyweights such as IFC or ADB. It has also endorsed the IFCI management's earlier plea for an immediate capital infusion of Rs 400 crore. The development finance company had made the plea after its Rs 353-crore rights issue in 1999-2000 flopped, raising just Rs 287 crore. The institution needs the money desperately as it has not been able to meet Reserve Bank of India's capital adequacy or capital to lending ratio norms The Ghosh committee, which had high profile members such as chartered accountant R.S. Lodha, former L and T managing director S.D. Kulkarni, Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra and joint secretary banking Anoop Mishra, has also pressed for IFCI's conversion into a term credit bank. This means it wants IFCI to reduce its project finance (which have proved sticky for it included huge loans to potentially unviable steel projects) portfolio from the current 94 per cent to 50-60 per cent and instead diversify into post-project and short-term financing as well as fee-based merchant banking activities such as advisory, merger and acquisition business. It, however, does not want IFCI to enter the retail finance business as the company does not have necessary experience in this field. As an immediate measure to ensure quality lending by IFCI, the committee wants more prudent loan and exposure guidelines which would bring down exposure to project finance,. It also wants IFCI to lay down a maximum project size to which it will give funds as a lead financier. It wants it to risk lending to huge projects only in exceptional cases and even there not as the main lender.