Experts discuss road ahead for Indian infrastructure

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Q: In terms of prescription, we have already discussed what needs to be done and what has happened, everybody around here is feeling a little bit more confident in terms of the steps that have been taken. But for us to be able to achieve 9-10% growth a lot more decisive action needs to take place in the infrastructure fund, give us a prescription of what needs to be done?

Manglik: In India, about which I am tremendously excited about what the potential holds, the thing we have to remember about the future is that there are no entitlements or guarantees, there are only possibilities. India's possibilities lie in the rural areas, where the real demographic, center of gravity is. So bringing broad band and opening up those to the world of ideas, healthcare, education, I think is going to be fundamentals, those are my prescriptions.

Q: In terms of the financial infrastructure, steps have been taken to reform the financial sector. The Prime Minister has talked about legislative action to actually take forward the insurance bill, the pension reforms bill and about deepening the corporate bond market. For somebody who has been analyzing and been part of financial sector in India for over two decades now - how different is the mood and how decisive do you think the government is feeling at this point in time in actually taking those steps forward?

Morparia: I feel India needs to leverage much more and this has got nothing to do with government enacting any new law or amending existing law. It is more with the policy framework; it is to see how we can penetrate basic financial services into the hinterland of India. Seventy percent of Indians live into rural India and if you look at the branch network that we currently have probably just 6% of villages are covered today with a brick and mortar branch presence. So Indians, who are so good at technology, have focused a lot upon how we can leverage our technology capabilities in servicing the western world. Now let us see how we can really leverage this and service the Indian financial sector in a way, "How can we create a bank branch in back pocket of every individual?" and for that there is a policy change required to do that, but a lot more private initiative to drive that.

Q: In terms of corporate India, what would your single biggest demand be?

Morparia: On corporate India, I think we need far more liberalization in terms of access to overseas market. Saying only if you have capital expenditure and at one time only if you have capital expenditure that where you are importing capital equipment can you access overseas markets, I think we have to get away from that. I think we need to access long-term debt from the international markets is what this country is going to need, if we have to realize our full dream of rolling out these billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure.

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