Infrastructure and Development in India: Interlinkages and Policy Issues

by Rajarshi Majumder

The role of infrastructure is paramount in the development process as shortages of infrastructure act as a limiting factor in fostering economic growth. Its importance is enhanced in labor-surplus developing economies like India. Large numbers of people can be gainfully employed in the creation of infrastructural facilities, which can thereafter fuel economic growth. Surprisingly, studies on this important issue have been sparse in India, and most of them have been done at the national or state level, or have focused on select facility. This book fills the gap by examining the infrastructure-development interlinkage in India up to the district level, preceded by a national overview of developments over the last 35 years, using a multi-variable approach. Another distinctive feature is an exercise in infrastructure demand projection consistent with India's Vision 2020 targets and cost estimation for reaching those goals. An extensive discussion on relevant policy issues facing the infrastructural planners today - both at sectoral and aggregate levels - completes the study.

215 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2008