While India has come a considerable distance in the area of infrastructure development particularly in the telecom space, the country is still lagging behind in areas of physical infrastructure encompassing ports, railways, airports and highways. India’s physical infrastructure is still not global-class and is being stated as a deterrent to investments by global giants. The good news is that the government is now planning to do a serious rethink on this crucial component in the country’s development and planning to focus on improving the power situation, building roads and upgrading ports.

Q Despite improvements in the last decade, India still lags behind countries such as China in terms of physical (highways, ports, roads, power, etc.) and telecom infrastructure? What can we do to become global-class?

To be global-class, it is blindingly obvious that investment in IT and physical infrastructure is hyper-critical. Let us step-back and look at the macro perspective.
Broadband penetration is a critical pre-requisite to deepen the reach of quality healthcare and quality education into India’s core. These in turn are catalysts to realise the demographic dividend of the young India. Concomitant investment in development of enabling applications would also need to happen. That is huge investment and huge impact – of which every bit counts.

By collaborating across industry verticals, a vibrant domestic electronics eco system can get created – an ecosystem that spans from systems to enabling IP. This would feed to the aspirations of a thriving domestic market – that in itself is an excellent nurturing ground for products that can have high value abroad.
Higher quality physical infrastructure will invite more FDI. China is too far ahead of India in physical infrastructure and in attracting FDI. The parallel thread of developing physical infrastructure will inevitably run at giga-pace in India – it should!

Anywhere in the world, for long term economic growth – the key enabler is Information Technology – that is the key infrastructure. We have globally competitive companies in India in this domain. Furthermore, there is an osmotic pressure on the knowledge economy, for it to penetrate into the core of India, as Indians know that a rupee earned closer home buys far more than a rupee earned further away.

Saugat Sen, Vice President R&D, Cadence Design Systems

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