Investment in Infrastructure is Essential for Rapid and Inclusive Economic Growth

Development does not mean that only a section of the society gets benefited, but in the true sense, the development of a nation reflects an increase of income of both rich and poor at the same rate. Many nations are investing huge sums of money in various sectors to strengthen their economy and benefit their citizens. But just like every finger is not the same each sector can’t provide an outstanding profit to a nation. But the infrastructural development is one of the core sectors of development on which most of the nations are focusing on. 

Now it becomes quite important to understand why every nation is running behind the infrastructural development. Well, one of the main reasons behind it is that a nation with excellent infrastructural facilities is more likely to attract higher foreign investment than any other country. Also, infrastructural development not only strengthens the economy but also uplifts the economically weaker section of the society and provides them with better living space. 

If we talk about India, the infrastructural development in the country accounts for a significant ratio in the GDP growth every year. Almost all the major sectors like power generation, construction, road and railways, building townships, oil, and gas come under infrastructure. The infrastructure sector is one of the key sectors playing a major role in the growth and development of India.

Department for promotion of Industry and Internal trade recently published a report which shows that there was more than $26 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India from the year 2000-2021.

Need for Investment in Infrastructure and its effects on Inclusive Economic Growth:

• It’s important to understand that investing in infrastructure is not beneficial but also it is essential for the inclusive economic growth of the nation. Inclusive growth is more important as each citizen of the country should get benefited from the ongoing development.
• Investment in infrastructure opens new doors for transportation between the countries like building seaports, airports, etc. so that goods and services can be easily exchanged between the counties. The best example is the Mundra port of Gujarat, one of the busiest seaports of India. Mundra port alone generated a revenue of more than INR 3339 crores in the year 2021.
• Infrastructural development not only stabilizes the economy of a nation but also helps it grow at a rapid pace. Investing in infrastructure helps a nation in making inclusive growth thus reflecting in reduced poverty.
• It is often seen that Large scale industries exhibit a good infrastructural facility and thus many nations including the Indian Government are focusing on better infrastructural development for the MSMEs (Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises). These MSMEs provide jobs to millions of people in India and also significantly contribute to the economic growth of India.
• Many people think that the agricultural sector is not included in infrastructural development but it’s a myth. Infrastructural developments develop technology that benefits a lot in the agricultural sector. Also, the main aim of infrastructural development is not to develop more industries but it focuses on inclusive growth which includes rural infrastructural development, providing safe drinking water, proper hygiene, sanitation facility, etc.

Barriers for Infrastructural Development:

1. Resources: Any kind of infrastructural development requires some of the natural resources like land, water, electricity, etc. Apart from this it also requires manpower and money. However, some nations are running out of natural resources while some nations do not have many financial resources. Thus acting as a barrier to the infrastructural development of the nation. 

2. Geographical Location and Climatic Condition of a Nation: The climatic condition and geographical location of a nation act as an important barrier to infrastructural development. As the countries with continuous or less rain badly affect the construction work as water is required in construction at large scale. However continuous ongoing rain makes it difficult to work on a construction site. Apart from this, some counties are located on seashores and in hilly areas where it becomes difficult to construct buildings.

3. Ideologies and Government Policies: Government policies and ideologies make a deep impact on infrastructural development in any nation. Each elected party has a different ideology and thus they frame policies accordingly after getting into power. Like some governments focus on infrastructural development, while some focus on educating people etc. Thus these ideology clashes sometimes act as a barrier to infrastructural development.

Government Initiatives in the Sector of Infrastructural Development:

In past years Government of India came up with some excellent initiatives to grow the infrastructural sector thus leading to inclusive economic growth. 

• In the financial year, the government allocated funds of more than $32.02 billion for infrastructural development in India. It will include the expansion of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) from a total of 207 projects in 2020 to 7400 by the end of 2022.
• The DRIP-2 (The second Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project) is launched to improve the safety of dams across the nation. More than 120 Dams are included under this project belonging to various states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha, Rajasthan, Manipur, and Meghalaya.
• The government of India is going to invest more than INR 1.5 Lac Crore in the bullet train project that is going to connect Delhi-Varanasi, and Mumbai-Nagpur. Also, the existing metro train network is going to expand to many new cities like Lucknow, Kochi, Kanpur, Indore, Bhopal, Jaipur, etc.
• The government of India is soon going to launch a project that will help track multiple model ongoing projects at a time like the expansion of gas pipelines, connectivity, Railways, and Roadways networks. The government named this project Gatishakti National Master Plan.

Investing in infrastructure benefits the economy to a great extent but it is important to make sure that there shouldn’t be any kind of corruption by any authority under the guise of development. Any development that is being done by a nation should assure that it should be inclusive i.e it would benefit people from every section of the society.