Private sector must pick up the baton on infra investment

The government has placed infrastructure development at the centre of its fiscal and public policy agenda

- Subhash Narayan

India needs to continue stepping up infrastructure investment over the next two decades to sustain a high growth rate, said the Economic Survey 2024-25. It is time for the private sector to take up the investment baton, with the government supplementing its own efforts with wholehearted acceptance of the need for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the country's infrastructure sector, the survey added.

The survey, by India's chief economic adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran, also said coordinated action was required from all stakeholders—governments at different tiers, financial market players, project management experts and planners, and the private sector—to step up private participation, which has been lagging behind in many core sectors.

"Capacities to conceptualize projects, develop sector-specific innovative strategies for execution, and develop high-expertise areas such as risk and revenue sharing, contract management, conflict resolution and project closure need to improve substantially," it said.