Budget 2024: Infra Sector Expects 30% Hike In Allocation, Says Vinayak Chatterjee
The infrastructure sector is expecting a 30% increase in allocation from last year's full budget to Rs 13 lakh crore this year, according to Vinayak Chatterjee, founder of the Infravision Foundation. He highlighted the Union government's consistent focus on infrastructure via pump-priming measures in a bid to drive economic expansion.
"This government has continuously followed its stance. There is no doubt about maximum allocation to infrastructure," Chatterjee said in an interview to NDTV Profit. "Public expenditure on infrastructure is driving economic growth."
Chatterjee expects an increasing emphasis on budgetary allocation for the railways over roads, pointing out that the gap had been getting narrower. He stressed on the need to balance the focus towards the railway sector as road connectivity had seen significant improvements over the past two-and-a-half decades.
Vinayak Chatterjee (Source: NDTV Profit)
He also suggested a reconsideration of the 28% goods and services tax on cement, a key component for infrastructure development.
Chatterjee said allocation to green energy and emphasis on water storage would be critical to watch. He highlighted the importance of significant allocations for public works related to water, including cleaning rivers like the Ganga and water supply.
Chatterjee suggested that the crucial issue now was moving to transmission infrastructure because most of the solar and wind plants are in remote places. He also suggested the establishment of a green energy transmission fund via multilateral development banks as a beneficial step forward.
Focus on allocations for transmission infrastructure to evacuate the power and, equally importantly, on developing and encouraging storage.Vinayak Chatterjee
He said the government had already shown commitment in reducing the cost of logistics, saying that the National Logistics Policy was aimed at lowering the logistics costs by 5% of the gross domestic product.
On social infrastructure, Chatterjee also suggested the development of creative public-private partnership formats to attract private investment into the health and education sectors.
Chatterjee also cited the successful attraction of private capital, including foreign direct investments, in large airport projects. "(The) Indian middle class has shown that air travel is no longer a luxury," he said. "So, it's highly important to develop airports."
Watch The Interview Here
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
