How does Indias infrastructure development stack up to that of other key emerging markets, like China?
India has lagged well behind China in developing its infrastructure. Just a couple of anecdotes: There has been no new airport or air travel infrastructure built in India in the past five years—not one new runway, not one new terminal. And in each of those five years, the number of air passengers has increased by 25 percent. Combine that with tremendous pressure on expressways and railways, and what you have is an economy that has really not gotten its act together in terms of investing in infrastructure. What accounts for this gap between India and China? It really is the government. If you think about India for a second, it’s obviously a democracy, but it’s a democracy where 77 percent of the population lives in rural situations. So if the politicians are thinking about getting re-elected, their constituency may not care that Mumbai needs another bridge across the port. Or they may not care that Bangalore needs to have a better ring road, because that’s not their bread-and-butter iss
