New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS): The synergy between physical and digital infrastructure will be one of the defining features of India's future growth story, said the Economic Survey on Tuesday.
The Survey said that the targeted increase in investment is seen across all the infrastructure sectors. To help sustain the investment drive, the national infrastructure pipeline (NIP) provided a forward-looking roadmap of investible projects.
Further, PM GatiShakti has helped accelerate infrastructure development by integrating the seven engines (roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways, and logistic infrastructure) of growth. While traditional infrastructure sectors such as roads and railways have received a renewed push in recent years, sectors such as inland water transport and civil aviation, which have significant untapped potential, are also being encouraged sufficiently.
Parallelly, the focus is also on improving the coordination among the different stakeholders and ministries. This will help resolve compliance issues and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of investments. Besides, the reforms being undertaken in the energy and power sector will help fast-track India's progress in the next 25 years. With a population of nearly 140 crore, India has a massive demand for energy from all sectors including primary, secondary and tertiary.
The Survey pointed out that affordable and reliable availability of power is critical for India's aspirations for the manufacturing sector to be fulfilled. Further, with the growing importance of clean energy, there has been a renewed push towards non-fossil fuel-based energy sources in the power sector.
The government, along with the private sector, has progressively worked towards increasing the share of renewables. This will ensure a gradual but calibrated energy transition, meeting the country's sustainability targets and giving primacy to its national developmental requirements.
With the advent of new technologies, we are witnessing new regulatory challenges. Technology and innovation are, per se, neither constructive nor destructive. The use cases present the positive aspects of technology and innovation.
The government is committed to keeping pace with the digital landscape developments including those related to legislations and frameworks. While the digital journey started with Aadhaar as a medium for service delivery at the doorstep, UPI strengthened the digital payment infrastructure.
With other initiatives like CoWIN, e-RUPI, TReDS, Account Aggregators, ONDC, etc., at different stages of implementation, India has developed a unique and cogent digital story to tell. The journey is ongoing and there is much untapped potential in India's digital public infrastructure space, said the Survey.