 A nation in overdrive, the world's fastest growing free market democracy, an emerging global hub of knowledge and technology, a booming economy backed by internationally competitive industrial sectors, a spiraling upward journey fueled by the dynamic spirit and rising aspirations of a billion people. This surging growth and development taking place across the economy has thrown up new challenges and opportunities particularly in the domain of infrastructure. Even though India's infrastructure has undergone a quantum leap in recent years, there is a need for more action in this arena. More ports, more airports or bar plans. What is the driving force that underlines this constantly growing need for bigger, better infrastructure? To understand this phenomenon, one must take a look at the bigger picture. Over the last three years, India's economic growth has been 8%. Currently, this is one of the fastest growth rates in the world. In terms of US dollars, this translates to a growth rate as high as 13% per annum. India has also emerged as the fourth largest economy in the world, accounting for 5.9% of the world's gross domestic product. According to Goldman Sachs, India is the only economy in the world that is capable of growing at 5% per annum right up to the year 2050. The global opportunity that India presents for overseas investors are immense and wide-ranging. Take the telecom industry for instance. It has translated from the highest tariffs to the lowest in the world. From a mere 5 million landlines in 1991, the country has reached a point where 5 million cellular connections are added every month. The investment opportunities in this sector are backed by a national telecom policy that aims at encouraging private and foreign investments and overseen by an independent regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or TRY. It is no wonder, therefore, that all global telecom majors including Vodafone of UK and Nokia of Finland are present in India. The investment opportunities are estimated to be in the vicinity of 22 billion US dollars and ambitious targets have been drawn up. 500 million landlines, 40 million internet users and 20 million broadband connections by 2010. One and a half decades of economic reform have also triggered a boom across India's automobile and civil aviation industries. In the auto industry, the turnover has grown from 12 billion dollars in 2002-2003 to 19 billion dollars in 2004-2005. The Japanese auto giant Nissan has recently decided to invest 500 million dollars in a car assembly plant in India. Likewise, the aviation sector has witnessed the advent of the government's Open Sky policy followed by extensive expansion and consolidation arising from the entry of low-cost carriers who have successfully increased the size of the market. To attract the investments needed to expand airport facilities, the government has amended the AAI Act to provide the legal framework for the privatization of airports. Moreover, it has announced 100% tax exemption for airport projects for a period of 10 years. Highways and roads need to be developed rapidly to cope with the automobile revolution and the growth in cargo traffic taking place across the country. The government has permitted 100% FDI for all road development projects backed by 100% income tax exemption for a period of 10 years. Moreover, the National Highways Authority of India, NHAI, offers grants and viability gap funding for marginal road construction projects. It is estimated that investments of more than 50 to 60 billion US dollars are required over the next five years for the development of road infrastructure that is commensurate with the growth of passenger and cargo traffic. More cargo terminals and ports are needed to clear the growing consignments triggered by India's surging global trade, which is likely to grow exponentially in the years ahead. The new foreign trade policy envisages doubling India's share in global exports in the next five years to touch the 150 billion US dollar mark. Currently the ports are not geared to handle this kind of growth. Capacity augmentation across both major and minor ports is urgently required. Since cargo traffic is expected to grow from 520 million metric tons in 2004-2005 to 800 million metric tons by the year 2012, surging onward to the 960 million tons mark by 2013-2014. Likewise, containerized cargo is expected to grow at a rate of over 17% over the next nine years. Investments to the tune of 13.5 billion US dollars are required for expanding the major ports, while an additional 4.5 billion US dollars is needed for the minor ports. To facilitate this, the government has allowed 100% FDI for port development projects backed by 100% income tax exemption for a period of 10 years. Real estate is experiencing an unprecedented boom driven by a combination of factors. The demand for housing fueled by home loan and low rates of interest, tax incentives and a higher propensity to save across the growing middle-class segment and the growing demand for commercial space driven in turn by the rapid growth in the retail IT, ITES and hospitality sectors. Already 11.5 billion US dollars have been earmarked for 60 cities over the next five years. The investment opportunity presented by the sector in the coming five years is estimated to be over 50 billion US dollars. Leading foreign institutional investors like Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Blackstone and Calpers are eager to invest in the sector. To bridge the investment gap in this sector, the government has allowed 100% FDI. There is so much happening and there is so much more to be done. It is time for action and a master plan is needed to face the challenges thrown up by the sector. India's investment requirements in infrastructure are enormous and projected to rise from 4.5% of the GDP during the 10th plan to 7.5% of the GDP during the 11th plan. In monetary terms, this translates into a requirement of 320 billion dollars to be invested in areas like telecom, ports, airports, roads and bar. Of this requirement, 150 billion dollars is expected to come from FDI over the next five years. 25 billion dollars in telecom, 50 billion dollars in ports and airports and 75 billion dollars in the bar sector. So, where is all this money going to come from? The resources of the government are not enough to bridge the gap. Such big-ticket infrastructure calls for very large amounts of foreign direct investment. Fortunately, the stage is already set to facilitate this. The ideas of reforms have created a level playing field for foreign investors and as mentioned earlier, India is currently viewed as one of the most attractive destinations for foreign capital. The country is a signatory to the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and to a host of bilateral agreements. Hence, there are no restrictions on the repatriation of profits and dividends. Moreover, the policy regime too is one of the most liberal. So, how does the government propose to bring such infrastructure investments into the country? The chosen vehicle is public-private partnerships or PPPs. In line with this model, the government has decided to award PPP projects on the basis of transparent competitive bidding together with a standard concession agreement to garner the requisite investments in critical areas like highways, ports, airports, railways and par. PPPs are already at work in connection with the ongoing modernization of the international airports at Delhi and Mumbai with the GMR and GVK groups making steady progress in these two metros respectively. In much the same way, PPPs in the area of ports have also been identified as the path forward to augment capacities. These entail investments of 45 billion US dollars during the 11th plan. An exciting prospect is for PPPs to transform the Indian railways with 90 billion US dollars of investments slated in the 11th plan for freight corridors, cargo handling facilities, better port connectivity. Such PPPs alone are expected to enable India to grow faster by 1% per annum. The heady industrial growth being witnessed across the subcontinent necessitates enormous investments in the par sector and PPPs are acknowledged as the best way to attract such investments. There is a clearly defined need to add 78,000 megawatts of par by 2012 as part of the government's mission of par to all. Government's current focus is to build five ultra mega bar projects generating 20,000 megawatts over the next 7 to 8 years. The future is infrastructure. Investing in it will set off a mutually beneficial cycle of growth followed by a need for stronger infrastructure, enabling India to grow rapidly on a sustainable basis, ultimately to emerge as an economic superpower in the decades ahead. Come explore new horizons, new opportunities, India's infrastructure.