Economic Infrastructure of India - Infrastructure of Indian Economy, Indian Economy and Infrastructure

A nation’s infrastructure provides a support system for the growth of other industries. The article highlights the different sectors of infrastructure, the progress made in urban and rural infrastructure and the future for the infrastructure sector in India.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is given due recognition for a nations economic progress. Infrastructure sector is characterized by

The following sectors come under the purview of infrastructure

Infrastructure Of Indian Economy

Urban Infrastructure
It has been found Internationally and in India too, urban development is key to economic prosperity. The growth of the service sector has further cemented the need for an efficient urban infrastructure. The rapid urbanization and the increasing pressure on major cities from the migrant population, has put undue stress on urban infrastructure resulting in shortage in housing, inadequate water supply and sewerage, traffic congestion, pollution, poverty and social unrest. Today managing urban infrastructure is a major challenge for urban planner.

Post Reforms Urban Development
The reforms concentrated on restructuring and defining the role and responsibility of urban municipalities. Some of the salient features are:

1) Expand the source of fund for financing urban infrastructure projects. These include

2) Improved public private partnerships to augment private sector participation in the urban sector.

3) Issue municipal bonds to generate finance.

The Constitution Amendment Act 1992
The act provides the state government power to involve local civic bodies in improving the condition of the urban poor. The act gives constitutional status to Urban local bodies (ULBs) and advocates a uniform local governance structure throughout the country. The functions under the responsibility of local civic bodies are:

Urban Planning.

Rural Infrastructure
India lives in its villages. Development of rural infrastructure is equally vital, if not more important than urban infrastructure. Efficient rural infrastructure is key not only for rural economic progress, but also to alleviate the living standards of rural poor. Some of the constraints for rural infrastructure development are poor financial health of the state governments, insufficient rural development projects and the incompletion of many sanctioned projects. In order to address the problem, the government initiated the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) in 1995-96 with an initial sanctioned amount of Rs 2000 crores with inputs from both the public and private sector.

Some of the salient features of the RIDF are: