Use holistic approach to boost infrastructure: Core-sector chiefs

The country has not seen the growth of any new urban centres after Independence.

The government, developers, financial institutions and users should adopt a holistic approach to solve problems in India’s core sector, said heads of infrastructure companies at the India Economic Forum here.

“Countries and societies often focus on only one segment of infrastructure, which creates problems,” said Rajiv Lall, managing director and chief executive of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC).

Lall said despite having vast resources, India lags behind in seven main areas of infrastructure — health, information, water, housing and real estate, education, energy and logistics infrastructure.

“When we talk about health, we are far behind. Fifty per cent of our children are malnourished. Two-thirds of the population does not have safe drinking water. Two million people die before the age of two,” Lall said. He said around two-thirds of population does not have access to toilets.

On information infrastructure, he said “We have 800 mobile connections but only 10 million internet connections.” He added that while some places have 16 lane highways, others do not have even two lanes.

Ankur Bhatia, executive director of Bird Group, said that the government should work with industry to provide more services to the people.

Giving the example of the aviation sector, Bhatia said that airlines in India cater to only 35 million people, whereas in reality a 300 million-strong population wants to take to the skies.

“Flights do not connect with destinations which people want to travel to. Many state capitals do not have direct connectivity,” he said.

Ravi Sharma, chief executive officer, Adani Power, said none of the sectors in India —banking, telecom, insurance —have policies that are well thought out, consistent and long-term in nature.

“Whenever a sector picks up and does well, it trips as there are no consistent policies. Policies should be able to make up for the lost time in those sectors but that has not happened,” Sharma said.

Harpinder Singh Narula, chairman of DSC India, said everything started in India is conceived as corrupt until it is proved otherwise.

“Once any project is awarded under public-private participation, it is considered as financial transaction where the demands of all stakeholders (state and Centre, public at large, developer, financial institutions) are met. But in India, governments still do not think of them as transactions and think they have a major role to play,” he said.

Referring to Bihar’s growth model, Sudesh Menon, managing director of Waterfield India Private Limited, said the number of people who used to migrate from the state in search of work has come down significantly after the present government took many development initiatives there.

“This is the effect when you develop infrastructure and economy,” Menon added.

He also backed his argument with the example of how the incomes of fishermen from Kerala improved after mobile telephony was launched in the state. “Earlier, they were forced to go to the nearest ports and sell their catch. After mobile phones came, they had access to price information in different ports and made good profits,” he said.

On urbanisation, Ankur Bhatia, executive director, Bird group, said the country has not seen any new urban centres after independence.

“We did not see the emergence of new urban centres. Only existing ones expanded and developed. The government should create new urban centres where people can go and work,” Bhatia said.