The government of India on Tuesday announced an ambitious plan to invest $1.43 trillion in various infrastructure sectors like ports, railways, and highways, among others.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the mega plan, touted to achieve a $5 trillion economy in the next five years. However, she remained silent on the mode of funding for the infrastructure blueprint.
Announcing the blueprint for India’s infrastructure investments, Sitharaman said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in his Independence Day speech spoken of investing in infrastructure. Subsequently, a task force identified $1.43 trillion worth projects after conducting 70 stakeholder consultations in a short period of four months”.
Going forward, the finance minister unveiled a blueprint outlining sector-wise investments in various segments of infrastructure.
As per the blueprint, named the National Infrastructure Pipeline, investments will be made in the energy sector, agriculture, mobility, ports, highways, airports, and telecommunications.
Analysts, however, believe that without an insight into the source of funding, the vision on infrastructure is a mere “wishlist”.
“The blueprint is fine. But to turn the aspiration into reality, there also has to be a plan on financing the infrastructure pipeline. On that count, it remains an incomplete document”, Sunil Sinha, director (public finance) at India Ratings and Research – a Fitch group company, said.