Modi government’s push to dramatically speed up road
construction is giving rural areas a big boost:
“India—long held
back by its potholed roadways, dilapidated bridges and shaky power grid—is on a
building spree. The government spent $11 billion laying 3,700 miles of highways
in the latest financial year, 36% more than the year before. Its target for
this year: 9,300 miles. It also aims to commission highway projects totaling
15,500 miles before next April, and to spend $33 billion, or 11% of the budget,
on infrastructure, mostly roads and railways.
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi is betting a burst of public expenditure can jolt more Indian
companies into spending, too. Corporations’ investments in buildings, equipment
and plants have tumbled for years even though overall economic expansion,
fueled by consumer activity, has quickened to a world-beating 7.6%. The
infrastructure push is also accelerating a quiet transformation in the
country’s vast rural interior. As remote villages have become better-connected
to the wider world, fewer Indians are working the land. More are starting
shops, household industries, small-time service businesses—sources of
livelihood that don’t whipsaw with the monsoon rains.”