India launches huge infrastructure plan to revive growth

India launches huge infrastructure plan to revive growth

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a 100 trillion-rupee ($1.3 trillion) national infrastructure plan to pull the country back from a sharp economic decline worsened by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. When Modi came to power in 2014, he announced he would make India a $5 trillion economy. But growth has been stalled ever since, especially after the pandemic broke out. In the last fiscal year that ended in March, India’s economic output fell by a record 7.3 percent. The national infrastructure program dubbed Gati Shakti, which means momentum, aims at boosting the productivity of industries, agriculture and other sectors in Asia’s third-largest economy. “Development is not possible without quality infrastructure, and the government has now resolved to develop it in a holistic manner,” Modi said during the launching ceremony. “Gati Shakti will ensure that there will be no loss of time and money due to lack of infrastructure.” Gati Shakti is India’s most ambitious infrastructure plan so far. “If you look at the $1.3 trillion for the infrastructure campaign, it is more than three times that of India’s total budgetary allocation,” Prof. Pravakar Sahoo of the New Delhi-based economic think tank Institute of Economic Growth