For the last 2 months, I am continuously saying in this blog that India must address the issue of infrastructure development (especially in the rural areas) if the country wants to be an economic giant in the real sense. Unfortunately, these days, everyone gets so carried out by the Indian success in outsourcing and other fields that the issue of infrastructure development remains largely unnoticed by the politicians, businessmen and even by the media. So, I am happy that at last Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram acknowledged today that Indian economy was losing 1.5%-2% of economic growth every year because of poor infrastructure in India. If India could have that additional 2% growth then it could almost touch China in terms of annual GDP growth.
However, I think that Mr. Chidambaram will give importance to the infrastructure development of major cities in India as these cities are attracting foreign investment these days. However, I am dead against of going for urban infrastructure development at the expense of rural infrastructure development. Instead, there should be a proper coordination and combination. Or else, after 10 years, the Indian FM of that time will regret that because of poor infrastructure in rural areas India is losing 5% of potential growth.
What do you think about it?
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infrastructure is like a long time investment, its very expensive but can be usefull for a long time. But unlike another investment, infrastructure cant directly produce money. This make goverment and investor think to invest on easy money produce.
Posted by: hedgehogman | May 21, 2006 3:25 AM | Permalink to Comment