Burgeoning trade is putting pressure on India’s inefficient ports, and rapid urbanization is straining the country’s unreliable electricity and water networks. India’s infrastructure sector has battled decades of dysfunction. Post-independence, the government led a state-centric approach to infrastructure development, building, owning, and managing projects. The system created a host of inefficiencies; after years of unmet demand and growing financial constraints, the government opened the sector to private investment as part of its economic liberalization in the early 1990s. Yet the success of the reforms has been mixed; private participation has fallen short of expectations, and energy shortfalls have proliferated. The endemic dysfunction has bruised India’s international standing and further discouraged direly needed outside investment. Read More
