No attribution requiredNITI Aayog sees huge opportunities in Indian urban infra
Airports, energy and smart cities are key areas, according to Yaduvendra Mathur, from the think tank.
February 18, 2019Infrastructure
GRI Hub interviewed Yaduvendra Mathur, additional secretary of NITI Aayog, at the India Infra GRI 2019 (29-30 January, Mumbai) on his thoughts on the India’s attractiveness to global investment into infrastructure in near future.
The NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘think tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. NITI Aayog operates by designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, and they also provide technical advice to the central and state governments.
How do you see the infrastructure sector in India at this moment? Are there plenty of opportunities?
This is the best opportunity for Investors in real estate and infrastructure to choose to invest [in India]. The requirement for infrastructure in India is immense. Some have estimated it to be around $700bn – this is a whopping amount of money for the next 5 years. The greenfield as well as the brownfield infrastructure projects are extremely attractive and the regulatory structure is in place.
What are the most attractive infrastructure sectors in the country in your opinion?
The key areas which appear most promising are the airport sector, great opportunities to invest in PPP structures for existing airports, and there are some fantastic opportunities in tourism and in the power sector and in renewable energy as well as in the smart cities. There's a huge opportunity in urban infrastructure.
What can you say about the current regulatory and business environment in India? Is it investor friendly or still needs improvement?
The regulatory regime is well in place, we have a very robust framework that can support investors. The ease of doing business in India has been moved up about 50 places and we aim to come into the top 50 in the world in ease of doing business. So the overall framework is available and I really would invite global investors to check out and visit india. The time to invest is now. There is greater certainty than ever before, the macroeconomic fundamentals of our economy are as good as they can get. We are growing in a healthy 7.5% GDP year on year, we would improve despite of some global headwinds. All our inflation is down, our current account deficit are manageable. We are shifting to a green economy, so our dependence on crude oil would go down, we are opening up investment opportunities in oil exploration sector as well. This is the best time for global investors to choose to invest in the infrastructure space in India.
View list of upcoming GRI events within Infrastructure on the GRI Club website.
The NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘think tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. NITI Aayog operates by designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, and they also provide technical advice to the central and state governments.
How do you see the infrastructure sector in India at this moment? Are there plenty of opportunities?
This is the best opportunity for Investors in real estate and infrastructure to choose to invest [in India]. The requirement for infrastructure in India is immense. Some have estimated it to be around $700bn – this is a whopping amount of money for the next 5 years. The greenfield as well as the brownfield infrastructure projects are extremely attractive and the regulatory structure is in place.
What are the most attractive infrastructure sectors in the country in your opinion?
The key areas which appear most promising are the airport sector, great opportunities to invest in PPP structures for existing airports, and there are some fantastic opportunities in tourism and in the power sector and in renewable energy as well as in the smart cities. There's a huge opportunity in urban infrastructure.
What can you say about the current regulatory and business environment in India? Is it investor friendly or still needs improvement?
The regulatory regime is well in place, we have a very robust framework that can support investors. The ease of doing business in India has been moved up about 50 places and we aim to come into the top 50 in the world in ease of doing business. So the overall framework is available and I really would invite global investors to check out and visit india. The time to invest is now. There is greater certainty than ever before, the macroeconomic fundamentals of our economy are as good as they can get. We are growing in a healthy 7.5% GDP year on year, we would improve despite of some global headwinds. All our inflation is down, our current account deficit are manageable. We are shifting to a green economy, so our dependence on crude oil would go down, we are opening up investment opportunities in oil exploration sector as well. This is the best time for global investors to choose to invest in the infrastructure space in India.
View list of upcoming GRI events within Infrastructure on the GRI Club website.
