India is close to appointing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to manage an exchange-traded fund that will include companies part-owned by the government, said three people with knowledge of the matter.

The selection of New York-based Goldman’s asset management unit is awaiting approval from Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private. It will then go to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, this person said.

An aide to President Pranab Mukherjee said in September that India was working on an exchange-traded fund that tracks state-owned companies, as the government seeks to attract money to its stock market. Officials haven’t decided which stocks will be included in the fund, one person said.

D.S. Malik, a spokesman for India’s finance ministry, and Edward Naylor, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, declined to comment.