India's projects economy is going digital, and that changes everything

As India enters a massive infrastructure build-out phase, digital tools, startups and data-driven systems are transforming project execution, improving efficiency and reshaping the construction ecosys

For most of modern economic history, construction has been one of the largest industries in the world, and paradoxically one of the least digitised.

 

This is particularly true in India. The construction and infrastructure sector sits at the centre of the country’s growth story. It employs over 50 million people, represents over 10 per cent of GDP, and is responsible for building the roads, energy systems, logistics infrastructure and cities that underpin economic development.

 

Yet, despite its scale and strategic importance, the industry has historically been defined by manual workflows, fragmented supply chains and coordination problems that would look familiar to project managers from three decades ago.

 

The result is predictable. Delays compound, costs escalate and productivity remains stubbornly low.

 

None of this is because construction is resistant to innovation. Rather, the industry is structurally complex. Every project is a temporary organisation involving hundreds of stakeholders: developers, contractors, subcontractors, equipment providers, engineers, architects, logistics providers and regulators. Coordinating this ecosystem is extraordinarily difficult. Historically the tools simply did not exist to manage this complexity digitally.

 

That is now changing.

 

At Foundamental we focus globally on companies transforming the project economy, and what we are seeing in India today is particularly exciting. Entrepreneurs are no longer trying to ‘digitise construction’ in an abstract sense. Instead, they are solving specific operational problems that sit at the heart of project delivery.

 

Take procurement and supply chains, one of the most fragmented and inefficient layers in construction. Platforms like Infra.Market, Metalbook and Brick & Bolt are aggregating demand, standardising materials and integrating logistics and financing into a single system. What used to be opaque, relationship-driven sourcing is becoming predictable and data-driven, with direct implications for cost, timelines and working capital efficiency.

 

Others are creating data systems that monitor equipment utilisation, project progress and workforce productivity directly from the jobsite using sensors, robots, machines and computer vision. For example, a growing cohort of Construction Robotics companies, a theme I could not have imagined seeing adoption and scale in India 5 years ago, have started seeing meaningful traction, and have also been able to leverage their balance sheet using debt as a result of their profitable economics. This is construction-tech in India for you!

 

These innovations may appear incremental individually, but collectively they represent something much larger: the emergence of a technology layer for infrastructure development.

 

And the timing could not be more important.

 

India is entering what will likely be the largest infrastructure build-out in its modern history. Highways, freight corridors, renewable energy installations, airports, logistics parks, data centres and urban infrastructure are all being developed at unprecedented scale. Public investment is surging, and private capital is increasingly flowing into infrastructure assets.

 

But capital alone does not build infrastructure efficiently. Execution does.

 

This is where technology becomes decisive. If India attempts to deliver the next two decades of infrastructure using purely traditional processes, the system will struggle under the weight of complexity. But if digital tools become embedded across the project lifecycle: from design and planning to procurement, execution and asset management, the productivity gains could be extraordinary.

 

China offers an instructive parallel.

 

Over the past 30 years, China delivered one of the most dramatic infrastructure expansions in human history. While much attention is paid to the scale of capital deployed, an equally important factor was the ‘industrialisation of project delivery’. Large contractors adopted sophisticated project management systems, integrated supply chains and increasingly digital construction processes. Infrastructure development became systematised.

 

India’s construction ecosystem is far more fragmented and entrepreneurial, which creates different challenges, but also enormous opportunity. Instead of a few giant state-backed contractors driving digitisation from the top down, India is seeing technology startups building the digital backbone of the industry from the bottom up.

 

This matters not only for construction productivity but for the broader economy.

 

Infrastructure is a force multiplier. When projects are delivered faster and more efficiently, the economic returns compound. Logistics costs decline. Energy systems become more reliable. Urban infrastructure supports higher productivity. Entire regional economies become more connected.

 

Conversely, when infrastructure projects suffer delays, cost overruns or coordination failures, the economic cost reverberates far beyond the construction sector itself.

 

Technology therefore has a critical role to play in ensuring that India fully captures the social and economic dividends of its infrastructure investments.

 

The opportunity is enormous. Construction globally represents a $10 trillion industry. Yet technology penetration remains extremely low compared to sectors such as manufacturing, finance or logistics. This means that even modest productivity improvements can unlock massive value.

 

Over the next decade we will likely see several structural shifts.

 

Project execution will become increasingly data-driven, with real-time operational visibility across sites. Supply chains will become more integrated and transparent. Automation and robotics will gradually augment labour-intensive activities. And digital platforms will coordinate the complex ecosystem of stakeholders involved in infrastructure development.

In short, the projects economy will begin to resemble other modern industries: networked, data-rich, and far more productive.

 

India has all the ingredients to lead this transformation: enormous infrastructure demand, a deep engineering talent base and a rapidly growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs building technology for the built world.

 

The challenge now is to ensure that these technologies move from the margins to the mainstream.

 

Because the infrastructure India builds over the next twenty years will shape the country’s economic trajectory for generations. Ensuring that it is delivered efficiently, intelligently and at scale will depend on one critical factor: bringing the projects economy firmly into the digital age.

(The author is co-founder and general partner at Foundamental. Headquartered in Germany, Foundamental is the world’s leading VC fund investing around the world in companies engaged in the projects economy sectors of architecture, engineering and construction and limited lot manufacturing.) 

Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper