Infrastructure- Every individual who has some interest in analyzing the growth trajectory of the Indian Economy shall come to one conclusion that if the Economy needs anything really fast; it is the Physical Infrastructure. A lot has been said, written and debated about the possible means of bridging this humongous gap between the developing and developed India. Right from the Nehruvian style of governance which laid the foundation stone of Indian policy making, to the contemporary neo capitalist form of economic functionality, Infrastructure has always been on the radar of rational policy making and governance. In the 50 year long history of Indian Economic planning and policy making, the economy has gone through massive environmental variations both domestically and Internationally. The economy has seen the downs of the early nineties to the robust late nineties and the new millennium but infrastructural bottlenecks have been a constant source of worry for the Indian policy makers. One must confess that during the major part of Indian Economic history, extraneous factors have been severely against the Indian economy and thus one can understand the slow strides that the economy has taken towards economic development fueled by significant public expenditure towards infrastructural development. On the contrary however one cannot ignore the irrational massive subsidy policies that crippled the economic growth of the country as political activism found precedence over economic sensibility. Therefore it would be fair to state that the history beyond the mid nineties has indeed been a mixed bag.
Times have changed significantly post the turbulent years of the early nineties , India had started taking long strides towards economic development as we approached the new millennium, but infrastructural constraints persisted all this while and they still come across the most significant impediment to long term sustainable growth of the country. The statistical indicators have been constantly indicating massive inflow of foreign money into India which is not necessarily volatile in nature. The tremendous growth potential of Indian corporates has attracted significant portion of the global liquidity as compared to other emerging markets to
be invested in India. The FDI trends have been robust ans so has been the actual earning of the Indian corporate sector. The recent strength that the INR has assumed against the USD and the other premiere currencies of the world stands testament to the robust demand in the global forex markets. In spite of favorable economic conditions and necessary fund mobility, infrastructural development has been slow in India. The conservative nature of the Indian polity especially the communist parties is the prime culprit for the same. Conventional wisdom has dominated the application of creative fiscal and public finance policies thus denying India from rapid infrastructural development. Billions of forex reserves have been lying idle since time immemorial but the policy makers have subscribed to the rational of economic conservatism and not use this money in development of Infrastructure.
The disinvestment policy has also been flawed in its very existence due to illogical constraints that find roots in the conservative thinking. The left parties and most of the other political parties both at the national and regional level have been functioning under the leadership of veteran leaders who have imbibed the traditional way of thinking and functioning amongst the party cadres thus virtually denying them the scope of thinking contemporary. The resistance to change ideologies remains the most problematic facet of the Indian polity and it can be only uprooted by incorporating a more contemporary style of thinking and functioning. Hence it is necessary for young people to come up and take charge of the country and explore different avenues that can take India to the 2020 vision of DR A.P.J Abdul Kalam.
I will keep adding other facets of the Indian Economy and society which have suffered due to generic thinking dominated by the old leadership at the political level............do write in with what you think on this topic
