Building world class infrastructure, both social and physical

Over the last decade, India’s entrepreneurs have leveraged our knowledge capital and our ability to assimilate and develop technology. Through this process we are not only creating value for ourselves but are adding value to other nations and societies.

By sublimating our knowledge capital into wealth creation, we have demonstrated a new growth paradigm, where our people, not just our mines, land, factories and physical production facilities, are our key economic resource.

This is now extending from technology services to medical research, healthcare, biotechnology, design and other knowledge-based sectors. Maintaining and enhancing the momentum in these areas requires continued investment in education, at all levels, to ensure that our young people have the knowledge and skill base needed to make the most of the vast array of opportunities before us.

The last few years have seen Indian industry make a strong recovery. After a prolonged and often painful process of restructuring and repositioning, Indian businesses have emerged leaner, more efficient in terms of process, quality and financing, and competitive on a global scale.

We are seeing Indian companies across sectors investing overseas and entering new markets through acquisitions or greenfield ventures. Indian companies now have the confidence to compete with international players in markets outside India. At the same time, global corporations are seeing India as a supply and manufacturing base.

The ability of Indian businesses and professionals to conform to and sometimes exceed international benchmarks is a key outcome of the process of allowing free domestic and foreign competition across various sectors. Indian companies have been able to drive down costs and achieve higher and higher levels of efficiency.

India’s mobile telecom service tariffs, the lowest in the world, and the increasing affordability of domestic air travel are just two examples of how we are redefining the cost to the consumer while ensuring profitability and shareholder value creation.

This process of growth and development has been backed by a sound financial sector and robust regulatory framework. The Indian financial sector has kept pace with the needs of the growing and increasingly diverse economy, offering high-quality services to businesses and individuals alike.

The availability of efficient financial services is a key driver of business efficiency and the ability of people to meet their needs for housing and other lifestyle aspirations. We have successfully created institutions to regulate the capital markets, the financial sector and other sectors like telecom and power, ensuring good corporate conduct and healthy private participation in various spheres.

Going forward, there are two key areas that require close attention. The first is the development of world-class physical infrastructure: power generation and distribution, roads, ports and airports. These are essential enablers of growth. The second is the extension of the benefits of growth to larger sections of the population.

We must engage many more of our people in the economic mainstream, by giving them access to the tools they need to participate in the nation’s development. A key element of this process is access to financial services for the under-served segments of the population in both rural and urban areas.

Currently, vast numbers of our people do not have access to formal sources of credit or the protection of life or health insurance. They continue to depend on informal sources for their financial needs and their livelihoods are exposed to risks ranging from unfavourable climatic conditions to disease and non-availability of affordable, efficient healthcare facilities. This is a challenge that must be addressed jointly by the government and private participants in the economy.

We have already shown our ability to adapt technology and business structures to the unique needs of the Indian market. We must take this to the next level by creating sustainable propositions for rural India and the low-income segments of the population, energizing their latent potential as drivers of growth and widening the scope of the upward socio-economic mobility that India is witnessing.

India is already empowered. Key sectors of the economy are on a self-propelling growth trajectory. We must now unlock the remaining shackles and unleash the power of every Indian to play his or her role in the full realisation of India’s potential.