Economic Survey: ‘India must spend $1.4 tn to be a $5 trillion economy by FY25’

The Economic Survey 2021-22, which was tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said to achieve the GDP of $5 trillion by 2024-25, India needs to spend about $1.4 trillion over these years on infrastructure. 

During FY 2008-17, India invested about $1.1 trillion on infrastructure, it said, adding that though the challenge is to step up infrastructure investment substantially.

"Keeping this objective in view, National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) was launched with projected infrastructure investment of around ₹111 lakh crore ($1.5 trillion) during FY 2020-2025 to provide world-class infrastructure across the country, and improve the quality of life for all citizens. 

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The Economic Survey said it envisaged to improve project preparation and attract investment, both domestic and foreign in infrastructure. 

“NIP was launched with 6,835 projects, which has expanded to over 9,000 projects covering 34 infrastructure sub-sectors,” it said.

During the fiscals 2020 to 2025, sectors such as energy (24 per cent), roads (19 per cent), urban (16 per cent), and railways (13per cent) amounted to around 70 per cent of the projected capital expenditure in infrastructure in India, says the Economic Survey. 

It said NIP has involved all the stakeholders for a coordinated approach to infrastructure creation in India to boost short-term as well as the potential GDP growth.

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