The Indian Economy Since 1991, 2nd Edition

27

Infrastructure Development in India

V. R. Prabhakaran Nair

27.1 Introduction

Infrastructure, both economic and social, plays a crucial role in determining the prosperity of an economy by enhancing the productive capacity in a self-accelerating process of economic development. While agricultural development requires irrigation, power, credit and transport facilities, factors like machinery and equipment, skilled manpower, management, energy, growth of banking, marketing facilities, transport development including roads, railways and shipping, and communication facilities are important for industrial growth. Thus, the term ‘infrastructure’ is used to represent all these activities that facilitate the working of an economy. While keeping diversity ...