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FT Rebuttal: Part 2 - Assessing Failed Infrastructure Overhaul

Modinomics is yet to deliver – was the Op-ed written by the Editorial Board of Financial Times published from London -( https://twitter.com/ft/status/1069894756929585152). They have raised the following issues in the article.

1. Modinomics yet to deliver to many
2. Failed infrastructure overhaul
3. Failed attempt to turn country into a manufacturing powerhouse
4. Demonetisation ineffective
5. Economic growth squandered away on symbolic projects (Statue of Unity)
6. Fudging statistics
7. NPA’s (Non-Performing Assets of Banks)
8. RBI Fracas (Reserve Bank of India)

We have initiated a series of eight articles, where each issue raised in the Financial Times Op-ed, as listed above, will be taken up, and, put under the microscope of facts and data to critically test the validity of the statements made. In the first and opening article, we examined the first issue -‘Modinomics has yet to deliver to many in India’. We saw through the prism of data that it is nothing short of a canard being spread. https://steemit.com/financialtimes/@ajain/ft-rebuttal-part-1-assessing-how-modinomics-has-reached-the-poor. In this article we will test the statement – Modi government failed to overhaul infrastructure.

Infrastructure was the topmost priority for the Modi Government. They took a holistic view of the infrastructure requirement of the country. The country’s needs were defined in the context of the emerging world order. The Op-ed states that the Modi government failed to overhaul the country’s infrastructure. Let us examine how true is their assessment.

We start with some far-reaching infrastructure changes that are going to redefine the entire lifestyle, and, will serve as a basis for accelerated growth for the country. As a very large, more than a majority population of India, lives in rural areas, for better assessment we will look at infrastructure development in two groups – Rural and Urban. There is an overlap between the two in many places. Many of the infrastructure projects help both segments. But still, the categorization does give a distinct picture.

a) Rural Infrastructure

i. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

India lives in rural areas. It was pathetic that in spite of 70 plus years of independence, there was no road connectivity for rural areas in most of the places. In the year 2000, under the then PM Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a scheme was launched to connect every village with a concrete road. Despite 4 years of BJP rule (2000 to 2004), and, another 10 years of Congress rule, this task was still unfinished (only 65% of the task was complete). In the year 2014 under Modi government, this unfinished and critical task was identified and was taken up for execution at breakneck speed. The target was to ensure that all villages are connected by road by the year 2022. The performance has been extremely good and the completion date has been advanced to 2019 (a good 3 years ahead of schedule). A total of 120,000 km (75,000 miles) of roads were constructed (virtually 1/3rd of total road length in Great Britain). How was it feasible? While the construction rate stood at 69 km/ day in March 2014, the same has almost doubled to more than 130 km/day by March 2017.

ii. Atal Bhoojal Yojana http://projects.worldbank.org/P158119?lang=en

This scheme has been drawn up to focus on rejuvenation of groundwater resources and efficient management of the same. It covers both the groundwater systems found in the country – alluvial and hard rock aquifers. The scheme is strengthening the institutions responsible for groundwater governance as well as community involvement for improving groundwater use. It is for the first time that a bottom-up planning process for groundwater management is happening in India. The scheme has been funded by the World Bank and the results are evident. Despite two straight years of drought, the country has not seen any significant inflationary pressure or drinking water critical shortage. A total of $ 1 billion is being invested in various schemes under this project. The investment will go on in a phased manner for the next five years or so.

iii. eNAM https://www.enam.gov.in/enam/

eNAM is a national agriculture market in cyberspace. Who would have thought this would become a reality in India? But in Modi regime it has. It is no doubt the biggest and boldest initiative of Modi government to empower the farmers in the rural areas. The farmers hitherto were obliged to sell their produce in the marketplace (Mandis) operated by Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs). It is a well-known fact that over the years these APMCs have come to work more for the vested interests and influential groups, and, less for the farmers, for whose benefit, they were established in the first place. As a result they have not been able to alleviate the woes of the farmers. Farmers are more often than not, forced to do a distress sale, resulting in significantly lower price realizations for them in these marketplaces. Moreover, the payments for them are also often not on time, leading to further distress for them. Political patronage for APMCs has become the rule rather than an exception. The Management of the APMC’s is normally packed with cronies of the politicians and hence the farmers find it difficult to make their voice heard even when they are meted out a rough deal. eNAM is steadily gaining acceptance by farmers as the farmers can directly control to whom they sell, at what price they sell and where they sell, bypassing APMC’s. So far 585 eNAM markets have been made operational in 16 States and 2 Union Territories (as per yearend review for the year 2018 -https://pibindia.wordpress.com/2018/12/26/year-end-review-2018-ministry-of-agriculture-cooperation-and-farmers-welfare/). Going further, the government proposes to integrate 415 wholesale markets with eNAM portal during 2018 – 2020. This would give farmers, traders and commission agents a unified platform for their buy and sell activities, complete with payments. As of 30th November 2018, a total of 121,044 traders, 67,375 commission agents, 14 million plus farmers have registered themselves with eNAM portal. The eNAM initiative has been successful in getting a firm toe hold in this maze laden by a minefield of disruptions and disruptive tactics by people with vested interests.

Source : https://www.enam.gov.in/enam/dashboard/stakeholder-data

This is a transformative and monumental change that was accomplished in just 4 years. Compare this with the time it took for gaining acceptance by the masses when e-commerce and platforms such as amazon.com etc. came into being (e.g., Amazon was formed in 1994)! And here we are talking of people who are not only poor but lack formal education.

The various state governments are also being forced to provide a supportive legal framework, facilitate ePayment gateways, and generally tackle the disruptive activities. A total of 18 states out of 29 Indian states are participating in eNAM. This is good going by any standards. The farmers are getting to realize the benefits of real-time price discovery based on actual demand and supply.

iv. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna
https://pmksy.gov.in/mis/frmDashboard.aspx

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) has been formulated with the following vision:
• extending the coverage of irrigation - ‘Har Khet ko pani’(Water for every farm plot)
• improving water use efficiency - ‘More crop per drop' - in a focused manner
• end to end solution on source creation, distribution, management, field application and extension activities.

The scheme has been in operation since July 2015. The results have been good and are close to the ambitious targets set. The data speaks for itself. Data is updated as of Aug 2018. See charts below:

v. Krishonnati Yojna http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=179046
This is an Umbrella scheme comprising of 11 Schemes/Missions. These schemes look to develop the agriculture and allied sector in a holistic and scientific manner. The objective is to increase the income of farmers by enhancing production, productivity and better returns on produce. An outlay of $ 5 billion is proposed on these schemes. The schemes have been in operation from the financial year 2017-18 and are planned to run until 2019-20. Let’s see what these schemes are. A word of caution here. The amounts mentioned are the share of spend by Central government. Total spend will be more as there would also be a share of State governments.

a) Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) with a total central share of $ 1 billion. MIDH aims to promote holistic growth of horticulture sector to enhance horticulture production, improve nutritional security and income support to farm Households.

b) National Food Security Mission (NFSM) (including National Mission on Oil Seeds and Oil Palm-NMOOP), with a total central share of $ 980 million. It aims to increase production of rice, wheat, pulses, coarse cereals and commercial crops, through area expansion and productivity enhancement in a suitable manner in the identified districts of the country. It also aims to restore soil fertility and productivity at the individual farm level and enhancing farm level economy. It further aims to augment the availability of vegetable oils and to reduce the import of edible oils.

c) National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) with a total central share of S 570 million. NMSA aims at promoting sustainable agriculture practices best suited to the specific agro-ecology focusing on integrated farming, appropriate soil health management and synergizing resource conservation technology.

d) Sub-Mission on Agriculture Extension (SAME) with a total central share of $ 425 million. SMAE aims to strengthen:

• ongoing extension mechanism of State Governments, local bodies etc.
• achieving food and nutritional security and socio-economic empowerment of farmers
• institutionalize programme planning and implementation mechanism
• forge effective linkages and synergy amongst various stakeholders
• support HRD interventions, to promote pervasive and innovative use of electronic/print media, interpersonal communication and ICT tools, etc.

e) Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP) with a total central share of $ 132 million. SMSP aims to:

• increase production of certified / quality seed
• increase Seed Replacement Rate (SRR)
• upgrade the quality of farm-saved seeds
• strengthen the seed multiplication chain
• promote new technologies and methodologies in seed production, processing, testing etc.
• strengthen and modernizing infrastructure for seed production, storage, certification and quality etc.

f) Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation (SMAM) with a total central share of $ 464 million. SMAM aims to:

• increase the reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers and to the regions where availability of farm power is low
• promote ‘Custom Hiring Centres’ to offset the adverse economies of scale arising due to small landholding and high cost of individual ownership
• create hubs for hi-tech and high value farm equipment
• create awareness among stakeholders through demonstration and capacity building activities
• ensure performance testing and certification at designated testing centers located all over the country.

g) Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plant Quarantine (SMPPQ) with a total central share of $ 146 million. SMPPQ aims to minimize loss to quality and yield of agricultural crops from the ravages of insect pests, diseases, weeds, nematodes, rodents, etc. and to shield our agricultural bio-security from the incursions and spread of alien species. The final objective is to facilitate exports of Indian agricultural commodities to global markets, and to promote good agricultural practices, particularly with respect to plant protection strategies.

h) Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Census, Economics and Statistics (ISACES) with a total central share of $ 104 million. It aims to:

• undertake the agriculture census, study of the cost of cultivation of principal crops
• undertake research studies on agro-economic problems of the country
• fund conferences/workshops and seminars involving eminent economists, agricultural scientists, experts
• bring out papers to conduct short term studies
• improve agricultural statistics methodology
• create a hierarchical information system on crop condition and crop production from sowing to harvest.

i) Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation (ISAC) with a total central share of $ 272 million. It aims to provide financial assistance for improving the economic conditions of cooperatives, remove regional imbalances and to speed up programmes for cooperative development in agricultural marketing, processing, storage, and computerization. It further aims to help cotton growers fetch remunerative price for their produce through value addition besides ensuring supply of quality yarn at reasonable rates to the decentralized weavers.

j) Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Marketing (ISAM) with a total central share of $ 552 million. ISAM aims to:

• develop agricultural marketing infrastructure
• promote innovative and latest technologies and competitive alternatives in agriculture marketing infrastructure
• provide infrastructure facilities for grading, standardization and quality certification of agricultural produce
• establish a nation­wide marketing information network
• integrate markets through a common online market platform to facilitate pan-India trade in agricultural commodities

k) National e-Governance Plan (NeGP-A) with a total central share of $ 30 million. It aims to:

• bring farmer centricity & service orientation to the programmes
• enhance reach & impact of extension services
• improve access of farmers to information &services throughout crop-cycle
• build upon, enhance & integrate the existing ICT initiatives of Centre and States
• enhance efficiency & effectiveness of programs through making available timely and relevant information to the farmers for increasing their agriculture productivity.

Going through the above details, one can not help but conclude that the Modi government has taken a comprehensive and integrated view of Agriculture development. And have instituted schemes to provide supporting infrastructure to agriculture right from information systems to the availability of high-quality seeds, to a better match of soil and produce, to soil testing and upgradation, to storage, marketing and distribution of the agriculture produce, and finally to expedited payments to the farmers. This, in the opinion of the Editorial Board of Financial Times, qualifies as a failure! This conclusion by the editorial board is beyond the comprehension of the authors of this rebuttal and we are sure the readers would agree to it.

We now move on to examine the infrastructure development in urban areas.

b) Urban Infrastructure

The urban infrastructure is a very vast subject. For the purpose of this article, we would take some prominent projects comprising of road development, bridge construction, waterway development, rail transportation, and air transportation.

i. Inland Waterways http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=180801

The Inland Waterways Authority of India has been in existence since the year 1986. Five inland waterways were identified then. But precious little was done to develop the inland waterways system in India. It was in the year 2015 that Modi government took a decision to make the inland waterways system a reality. A total of 106 waterways were identified for development in addition to the existing 5 already identified. As we write this rebuttal, a total of 12 waterways are already operational and another 35 have completed the feasibility study for operationalization.

ii. Road Projects

Road infrastructure has been the mainstay for transportation and travel in India. Recognizing this, the Modi Government. took up the challenge of significantly improving the road network by faster construction of new highways, road connectivity projects, improvement of existing highways, and supporting bridges, culverts, etc. From a level of 11.6 km per day in 2014, the construction is happening at the rate of 26.9 km per day today and the government is pushing for 30km plus per day. A total of 15,948 kms (about 10,000 miles) of Road has been built as of March 2017. For the first time in the history of the country, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has inventorized 172,517 bridges/structures under Indian Bridge Management System (IBMS).

iii. Rail Projects
There have been multiple infrastructure projects initiated by Railways or prioritized for implementation by the Modi Government. Some of these important projects have been mired in controversies or slowed down due to state issues (as opposed to Central government) such as land acquisition and state level bureaucratic red tape. Cutting through the maze, Modi government pushed hard for these projects, and, have come up with good results. Let’s see some of these projects.

• Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC)

This is perhaps the most ambitious project taken up by Indian Railways. It consists of approximately 1500 km of Western Freight Corridor (running from Dadri to Jawahar Lal Nehru Port in Western India), and, approximately 1800 km of Eastern Freight Corridor (running from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in Eastern India). A total of $ 12 billion investment is planned for the project. The investment is funded by internal resources, World Bank loan and loan from JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency). The entire land acquisition process for the project is complete. About 25% of the DFC is also ready. Either already thrown open for use or ready to be to be flagged off. The entire DFC project is slated to be completed by 2020. The benefits are all too obvious - faster movement of goods across the country, and, to the ports for export, freeing up the existing tracks leading to more capacity for passenger rail traffic resulting into faster travel and more number of trains.

• Manufacturing of High Powered Locomotives - India joined the club of select nations – Russia, China, Germany and Sweden - who manufacture 12,000 Horse Power electric locomotives. And the factory has been set up in a record time of less than two years. From the start of construction activities in July 2016 to the first locomotive roll out in April 2018. This is a critical infrastructure requirement for the success of DFC. Heavy-duty goods traffic requires heavy duty locomotives.

• Unmanned Railway Crossing – This was one of the big problem areas for Indian Railways. There were a total of 5500 unmanned level crossings in the country. They posed a risk to the people using these crossings, as well as, to the railway trains in the event of a mishap. As of Sept 2018, approximately 5000 of these crossings have been taken care of, and the remaining should have been taken care of as we write. It would be relevant to point out that this impacts the people living in rural areas predominantly - especially during the winter months when the visibility is extremely low due to fog. Results – from a state where almost 100 plus accidents were happening annually due to unmanned crossings some three years back, the number this year so far is down to just three. If this is not a direct benefit to common people then what will be?

• Train 18

Easily the pride of Indian Railways, Train 18 was flagged off on 29th Dec 2018 and was dedicated to the service of the nation. Why the pride? There are multiple reasons for the same. First, the train has been manufactured in India (Integral Coach Factory – ICF, situated at Chennai in Southern part of India) with almost 80% indigenous components. Second, it has been developed and delivered in a record time of 18 months. Projects of this type take almost 30 to 36 months for delivery. Third, it is the fastest Train on railway network slated to run at 160 kmph (the train is designed for up to 200 kmph and in fact clocked a speed of 180 plus and also touching 200 in field trials). It is also a pride from ‘Make in India’ point of view about which the Editorial Board had some doubts or was trying to create some doubts (more on it in the next article). The picture below is that of the Railway Minister inspecting the Train 18 just before its flag off.

• Upgrade of Existing Infrastructure – In addition to the above, significant investments have gone into upgrading the existing infrastructure. Relaying or repairing fractured tracks (some of these are more than 80 years old), introducing modern signalling system (this will reduce the distance between trains and allow more packing of trains on the same tracks), introduction of better and more comfortable passenger coaches & upgrade of many of the existing coaches, significant improvement of stations and passenger amenities across the country, and many more improvements on the system of ticketing and traffic.

iv. Road Transportation Projects
It has been mentioned above that the majority of Indians travel by road transport. In fact, if you take out the private vehicles and luxury transport buses, then the bulk of the travel using road transportation is done by people in the bottom half of the population. Rickety and unstable buses, dilapidated bus stations, non-existing basic passenger amenities, were all a part of familiar scenario when it came to public road transport in India. Most of the State Road Transport Corporations were running in the red. This bull was taken by the horn by Modi government once they came to power. In a multi-pronged attack, the government encouraged state road transport undertakings to modernize their fleet, invest in passenger amenities, build better bus terminals with integrated Metro rail links where possible, and many more small improvements with a big impact. Bear in mind that there are 29 states in India plus 7 union territories. Every state has its own State Road Transport Corporation. Slowly and slowly, a very likable picture is emerging.

Covering each one of these Road Transport Undertakings would almost be a thesis in itself and clearly not feasible for a rebuttal article. So for the sake of brevity we take up one example – UPSRTC (UP State Road Transport Corporation). Keep in mind that Uttar Pradesh (UP) is the biggest state of India with almost 15% of India’s population residing in that state. Just to sensitize the readers with the magnanimity of numbers, UP’s population is about 200 million, almost equal to the UK, France and Germany put together. These three are the largest countries in Europe (UK – 67 million, France – 65.5 million, and, Germany – 82.5 million). Hope the readers now get the magnanimity of the task involved.

UP inaugurated their first modern bus terminal in June 2018. The bus terminal situated in Lucknow is called ‘Alam Bagh Bus Terminal’. The Alam Bagh bus terminal is spread over 2,50,000 sq ft. It is an integrated terminal with a shopping mall, food court, air-conditioned waiting lounge, and an ‘in terminal’ Metro rail link.

The UP government has announced upgradation of another 21 bus terminals across the state along the same lines by 2020. Besides these 21 terminals, another 23 bus stands would also be renovated and upgraded to provide better passenger amenities and facilities for drivers of the buses. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that the state transport department has been turned around from a loss-making unit into a profit-generating unit. For the financial year, 2017 – 18 the department turned in a profit of $ 17.5 million. The turnaround was not just morale booster for all involved in operations of the unit, but the profitable operation lends sustainability to the entire development plan drawn up and announced.

Almost all the states have drawn up their own plans to significantly improve their public road transportation system and are at different stages of implementation. Improvements include more fuel-efficient buses, CNG based buses, a larger number of buses, higher number of bus trips for the same fleet size, better maintenance operations and so on.

v. Air Transportation Projects
Having looked at Inland Waterways and Road Transportation, it is now time to see what is happening on the air transportation side. It has always been thought that air travel in India is the prerogative of rich and mighty. And that is how it has been also for many decades. Things started to change a bit when low-cost carriers came into being a little over two decades back. East West Airlines, Damania Airways, Modiluft, NEPC Airlines, Air Deccan etc. were all low-cost carriers supposed to be opening up air travel in India for the masses. Did it happen? No. The air travel has gone up and many from the middle class today travel by air. But the real opening up of air travel as envisaged did not happen. The ground realty today is that most of the low-cost carriers that came in first have either shut shop or have merged / taken over by the big domestic airlines. And the new low-cost carriers that came in subsequently are only ‘low cost carriers’ for namesake. Recognizing this realty and knowing fully well that opening up of air travel for masses is a vital requirement for country’s development and growth, Modi government has come up with a policy framework to address this vital infrastructure need. The scheme is called UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Nagrik – meaning ‘Let the common citizen of the country fly’). The policy framework contains guidelines for carriers to service short distance air travel need for hitherto unconnected towns and cities. To meet this goal the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is slated to double the number of airports in next decade or so (quite a few of them have already been either upgraded or newly built). They are tasked to do all this in a manner that they do not cross the rubicon of affordability – Single journey to cost no more than Rs 2,500 ($ 35) per flying hour.

Here is an excerpt from the interview given by the Minister for Civil Aviation to a leading magazine – Nikkei Asian Review.

Jayant Sinha, the minister for civil aviation, said in a recent interview with the Nikkei Asian Review that “India should have 150 to 200 airports ... in the next 15 to 20 years. At present, the country has 100 airports, although it is building new ones fast, with no fewer than 31 expected to be completed in the next 12 months. Of the 100 new airports to be constructed, about 70 will go up in areas that have no airport now, and the remainder will become secondary airports".

What has been the result? The carriers are putting together their act. Some of them have already started operating the new routes with existing set ups and planes. They are taking this as a normal business process of seeding the market. The AAI on the other hand is already into the act of building new airports or upgrading the existing ones to handle increased passenger loads. Two new airports (Gangtok in Sikkim State, and, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh State) have been opened in areas where there was no airport existing. Details of these have been given in the North East Infrastructure development below. Is that all? No. Here are some more which have been inaugurated, or initiated.

• Darbhanga airport in Bihar is being upgraded for Civil air transport
• Bamrauli airport at Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) in Uttar Pradesh is being upgraded for increased passenger load.
• Vijayawada airport in Andhra Pradesh is being upgraded to service passenger as well as cargo commensurate with growth of Vijayawada as a major hub in Andhra.
• Jharsuguda airport in Orissa has been inaugurated in Sept 2018. It has been developed for all weather operations as well as night operations.
• Jabalpur airport in Madhya Pradesh is being upgraded to handle bigger aircrafts and for night operations.
• Deogarh airport in Jharkhand state is being upgraded to handle larger aircrafts and night operations.
  Source: https://www.aai.aero/en/media/press-releases

These are some of the projects that have been announced/inaugurated in the last six months. As mentioned by the Minister, the government has plans to build about 100 new airports in the next 10 years or so.

vi. Infrastructure Development with International Ramifications
The story on infrastructure will not be complete without taking cognizance of two more infrastructure developments. These are ‘Visionary’ in nature and transcend the barrier of a mere infrastructure. They are more of a redefining moment for India as a country, and, are path-breaking in nature.

• Space Infrastructure

The first one in the area is space infrastructure. India has joined the list of select few countries worldwide who have an indigenous cryogenic engine. And India is putting that to good use in building a space infrastructure through satellites for defense use, satellites for communication use, satellites for terrain and geography mapping, satellites for weather monitoring, and, even an indigenously built GPS satellite system reducing dependency on the US or other countries.

These are path-breaking developments and have been acknowledged and appreciated by leading space players – US and Russia. Last year India became a country that put the largest number of satellites in space in a single launch – 104 satellites to be precise. Quite a few of these were from other nations such as the USA. The US nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, said in his confirmation hearing to the Senate in Feb 2017 that he was shocked that India has progressed to a stage where India deposited 104 satellites in one go.

What has been even more significant has been India’s desire to go out and share the success with its neighbors in the spirit of cooperation – The SAARC (The South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation). The Indian PM made a promise to launch a SAARC satellite as a gift to SAARC countries right in the first few months after assuming power. He promised that each of the SAARC country would have access to one transponder to meet their internal needs for satellite-based data processing for governance. In line with the promise, in May 2017, India launched a SAARC satellite and dedicated it to the service of SAARC nations. The launch event was held in virtual space where heads of state of SAARC countries participated through a satellite link from their own offices in their respective countries. Today Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka are using the satellite to their choice.

• Digital Platform

This has been another path-breaking infrastructure development. India has developed a full digital ecosystem complete with digital payment platforms. The country has been making rapid strides in the field of adoption of digital technology. Opinions differ, but many people consider the emerging digital revolution in the same breath as the then Industrial revolution. As per Mr. Raoul Pal, an investment adviser – “India has built the world’s first national digital infrastructure, leaping at least two generations of financial technologies and has built something as important as the railroad was to the UK or the interstate highways to the US”.

We list out below the key components of the digital infrastructure:

• Aadhar (Unique Individual Identity for all Indians supported with bio-metric authentication)
• Banking for all – Today all Indian households have at least one bank account thanks to PMJDY.
• Extensive Mobile Infrastructure. India has one of the highest mobile penetration rates
• Unified Payment Interface – UPI. The National Payments Corporation of India released a mobile app, BHIM – Bharat Interface for Money, based on UPI. This allows people to do their monetary transactions directly from their bank accounts using the app.
• India Stack – in short eKYC (KYC - Know Your Customer).

The national digital infrastructure has been best explained by Mr. Raoul Pal in his article - https://www.mauldineconomics.com/outsidethebox/raoul-pal-paying-attention

This article was written in beginning 2017. Since then quite a few things have changed, but, the fundamental premise remains intact. That gives a huge heads up to India in the world on the front of future society.

c) North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme

The story of infrastructure would not be complete without a special mention of India’s North East sector. This sector is of critical importance for the country. Over the years it has not gotten it's due importance and fair share in the development activities. Some of the important projects executed during the Modi regime are as below. It should be borne in mind that many of these projects were sanctioned or announced many years back, with some of them dating back to more than two decades. They were languishing till Modi government came to power and took them up in right earnest due to their strategic importance. Some of the projects implemented in the North East are as below.

i. Bogibeel Bridge

This is a combined rail and road bridge inaugurated on 25th December 2018. The bridge is almost 5 km long. It reduces the road travel time from 6 hours plus to just about half an hour. The bridge is also of strategic importance to India as it opens up rail transportation right up to very close to the Chinese border, and, the rail transportation is now penetrating the North East sector for the first time in India.

ii. Dhola – Sadiya Bridge

The bridge is 9.15 km long. It connects Assam to Arunachal Pradesh - a border state of India. The bridge has been inaugurated in May 2017. The bridge has been built on the mighty river ‘Brahmaputra’.

iii. Pakyong Airport (near Gangtok)

This airport is situated in Sikkim state of India, the first airport in the state. Sikkim is another border state of India. The airport (a greenfield project) has been inaugurated in Sept 2018 and is of critical importance from Civil as well as Defense point of view.

iv. Pasighat Airport

This airport is situated in Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. Major upgrades have been made to the airport to take on fighter jets like Sukhoi, and, to take commercial flights for passenger and cargo.

The entire effort of the Modi government is to provide infrastructure to North East states in order to open them up for development, and, to provide tighter integration with the country.

In the above analysis, we see the kind of Infrastructure that is envisaged by the Modi government, and, is being put into place. By no means is this a comprehensive list of all infrastructure projects being undertaken in the country. That would be way beyond the scope of the article, which is rebutting the opinion put forward by Financial Times Op-ed. But even this limited data gives a fairly good and accurate picture on how the infrastructure is being put into place by the Modi government. How this falls short of a comprehensive overhaul, only the Editorial Board will know. As far as the authors of this article can see, from all angles, the opinion put forward by the Editorial Board in their Op-ed - campaign promise by Modi on Infrastructure overhaul has not been delivered - is not just short of data but is woefully off the mark. To say that the assessments given by the Editorial Board in their Op-ed are nothing short of a ‘Canard’ will not be wrong.

We work hard to research the topic and collect data points to form a narrative. So, if you like the article please upvote, resteemit and leave a comment.

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