India's new age Infrastructure

 

The Master stood upon the mount and taught.

He saw a fire in his disciples’ eyes;

‘The old law’, they said, ‘is wholly come to nought!

Behold the new world rise!’

This excerpt from the beautiful poem ‘Progress’ written by one of the celebrated English poets Mathew Arnold summarizes India’s growth story. From exquisite diamonds to most advanced texts like Upanishads, from a major exporter of textiles and spices to a home of highly sophisticated agricultural technology, India had it all.

Sadly, history took its course and India came under the imperialist ambitions of the British Empire. India was plundered, looted, and deprived of its natural wealth. To serve the interest of the British Raj the Indians were made to suffer. Poor infrastructure under the Britishers was one of the reasons to name a few. Though Britishers constructed the railway lines and the so-called Indian road network (0.399 million Km Road network and 42,000 miles of railway lines) However, the distribution of these lines was heavily skewed towards serving colonial interests, and many regions were left underserved. One such failure of infrastructure during British rule was Bengal Famine (1943-1944) where over four million lives were lost. We will not be wrong to call it a man-made famine!

It is in this context India got independence, the only positive thing we inherited from those colonialists was our inspiration and ambition to build a modern India. India blooms on economic prosperity, where inclusive infrastructure creates a way for intra and inter-generational equity, Where the roads connect the farthest village and modern cities emerge as a model for planned development for the whole world.

Soon after Independence, India’s infrastructure expanded by leaps and bounds. The government realizes that a country's level of human and economic development is closely related to its levels of achievement in physical and social infrastructure and therefore it heavily invested in infrastructural projects like railways, roads, power, and telecommunications directly improving the quality of life of the people. The first five-year plan based on Harrod Damodar's model focussed on capital accumulation and increasing the productive capacity of the economy. Later projects like Bhakra Nangal Dam, Hirakud Dam, Bhilai Steel Plant (1955) and Bokaro Steel Plant (1964), Atomic Energy Establishment, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and Nagarjuna Sagar Dam etc. led to social transformation and helped in the removal of regional imbalances in our country.

The overall length of the Indian road network has grown from 0.399 million km in 1951 to 4.70 million km as of 2015, which makes it the third largest roadway network in the world. Additionally, India's national highway system now spans 1, 37, 625 kilometres in 2021, up from 24,000 km (1947–1969). In the same manner, India has risen to become Asia's third-largest electricity generator. It increased its ability to produce energy from 1,362 MW in 1947 to 3, 95, 600 MW.

When today we are celebrating the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, 75 years of our glorious past and entered the Amrit Kaal we need robust, sustainable, and inclusive infrastructure which carries the capacity for linking - India with Bharat that is urban with the rural, modernization with traditionality and most importantly growth with equity. Infrastructure spending has a strong multiplier effect through various channels including employment generation, increasing the competitiveness of our manufacturing and services sector, attracting FDI and improving the standard of living of people of our country. Post Pandemic world is constantly changing, and it offers India the opportunity to diversify the global supply chain. For this India requires a global competitive edge which is only possible in the presence of world-class infrastructure. The government has launched various schemes in this direction like PM Gati Shakti- National master plan for multi-modal connectivity, National Infrastructure pipeline (total infrastructure planned at US $1.5 trillion), National monetisation pipeline which aims at increasing the value of brownfield assets, National Investment, and Infrastructure Fund (created in 2015), National logistics policy and many more. The government’s policies and initiatives demonstrate its recognition of the critical role that infrastructure plays in driving economic growth and development.

However, there are various grounds on which our infrastructural push faces various critical challenges- Red Tapism or excessive bureaucratic regulations delay the time of getting contracts for construction and developmental projects. Not adopting the proper plug-and-play model leads to delays in environmental clearance and hence leads to long-term high costs and become a time taken process. In terms of Indian society land acquisition also remains a challenge where a large number of farmers are against giving their land to large energy or connectivity projects. To date also the real potential of the PPP (Private-Public-Partnership) model has not been utilized properly.

There are various suggested reforms to the above problems like having a faster land acquisition mechanism for example the UDAN scheme in the aviation sector, Proper exit norms for the private sector in the PPP model, adequate availability of Funds, proper dispute resolution mechanism, framing independent authorities like Project Monitoring Group (PMG) to track frozen projects and remove bottlenecks etc.

As we all know an economy's infrastructure is pivotal in propelling its progress and setting the stage for its future development possibilities. Infrastructure development is crucial to achieving the India 2047 vision for a $ 40 trillion economy. Today India is initiating ambitious projects like the Chenab bridge, which is built at one of the highest altitude points and it shows the capability of our engineers. The journey ahead may be filled with numerous complexities and challenges but with visionary leadership, innovative solutions, a shared determination and most importantly Jan Bhaghidari. India's Next-Gen Infrastructure has the potential to shape a genuinely transformative and remarkable future.

When we all 150 crore Indians collaborate together then perhaps the words of Khalil Gibran may lighten up “ Perhaps time’s definition of coal is diamond” and India which was known as golden sparrow in the past may shine just like diamonds on the global stage.