India needs to increase investment in infrastructure to 10% of GDP

07 May 2012 Evaluate

India needs to increase its investment in infrastructure to 10% of GDP from the current 8% to achieve and sustain an economic growth target of 9% in the coming years. The country's GDP was $1.4 trillion at the end of March 2011. These comments were made by IDFC Projects Managing Director Pradeep Singh while speaking at the annual meeting of Asian Development Bank.

Singh also stated that the country had a long way to go in terms of meeting its infrastructure requirements and efforts were on to achieve the same. The 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) has set a target of $1 trillion for the infrastructure sector. Of the total targeted investment, private sector is expected to invest $500 billion - with around $350 billion through debt and $150 billion of equity over next five years. However domestic funding shall not be enough to meet the needs of the sector.

India invested $425 billion in infrastructure during the past five years which fell short of the targeted $500 billion. Despite the aggressive growth in last five years, India’s basic infrastructure ranked 86th in Global Competitive Report - 2010 by World Economic Forum.

Projecting India as investment destination, State Bank of India Chairaman Pratip Chaudhuri said, in a separate presentation, that Qualified Foreign Investors were allowed to directly invest in Indian equity market in January. Also the overall FII investment limit in government securities and corporate bonds has been enhanced to $60 billion. By adding further he said, India has a well regulated banking system, with 98% of the banks fully computerized.

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