The Indian economy is to grow at 7.5 to 7.75 per cent GDP, which by global standards, is the highest growth. However, the impact on the ground is minimal. To keep up the growth, we need to spend at least 8 to 10 per cent of GDP on infrastructure. After a two-year hiatus, the infrastructure sector has seen a silver lining in the form of roads picking up pace. Public spending is clearly the engine of revival. In the current scenario with the private sector badly bruised, capital is shy and only government-funded large scale infra projects can revive the economic cycle. The FM has proposed an outlay of Rs 2,21,728 crore for infrastructure in the Union Budget 2016-17. Recently at a Global Business Summit when I asked Minister Nitin Gadkari why the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was being neglected, he had responded that he did not oversee that segment and that the reason had been a below average fund allotment. In less than a month, the PMGSY has been brought centrestage. The Budget has accorded a higher allocation of Rs 97,000 crore including an accelerated PMGSY with an outlay of Rs 27,000 crore. Maharashtra itself is to see a spending of Rs 68,000 crore in the coming nine months. Railways too have an ambitious outlay for expansion of Rs 1,21,000 crore. It has station redevelopment, the latest launch of an ambitious Rs 50,800-crore Setu Bharatam project to ensure highways without railway crossings by 2019 and overhaul of 1,500 British-era bridges, to name a few. The budget to electrify 2,000 km next year has witnessed an increase in allocation by 50 per cent. It has also targeted commissioning 2,500 km of broad gauge lines at 7 km/day, almost 30 per cent higher than last year. LIC has agreed to invest Rs 1.5 lakh crore to fund railway projects. Rural development, the mantra of this year?s Budget, has Rs 87,765 crore provided for irrigation, electrification and welfare. Coal production has been the highest ever at 550 MT while imports by India are sliding. Last fiscal, India spent Rs 1 lakh crore in importing coal. We have already saved Rs 22,000 crore this fiscal on this account. Coal India has been directed to double production from the present level to 1,000 MT by 2019-20. Most of this increase would happen via the surface mining segment and to achieve this, the volume of overburden to be removed would shoot up from 1,000 million cu m to 2,500 million cu m. This will result in greater utilisation of existing deployed equipment while placing huge demands on the need to invest in additional mining equipment. Smart cities too would see RFPs of Rs 4,000 crore by end of this calendar year.

Three demand drivers of 2016-17: the infusion of the 7th Pay Commission payout (estimated Rs 1.02 lakh crore), the OROP payout (Rs 10,000 crore) and the public spending envisaged under the Union Budget. This is further backed by a higher probability of a normal monsoon although the benefit of oil prices is not likely to be as much as was available last year.

The year has begun on a promise and a prayer, Victory will be for those who are fearless and those who dare...

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