Execs look at the light side

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Execs look at the light side

Infrastructure is key to realising India's potential but bureaucracy, tough financing and hesitant overseas investment have slowed development in the sector, calling into question the country's future as an emerging economic powerhouse.

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Infrastructure is key to realising India's potential but bureaucracy, tough financing and hesitant overseas investment have slowed development in the sector, calling into question the country's future as an emerging economic powerhouse.

With its economy growing at 8.5% and a fast urbanising population of 1.2 billion, the need to speed project approvals, implement new financing models and lure foreign investors is increasingly acute. Here are some highlights from the Reuters India Investment Summit, which focused on infrastructure.

Godrej group chairman Adi Godrej:

"They (regulatory restrictions) must be reasonably long-term and they must not be case by case, because in India, case by case regulatory restrictions lead to what we call suitcase by suitcase responses."

Hindustan construction co group CFO Praveen Sood:

"In India, caste is a thing. Like, a Brahmin guy will go for a Brahmin girl and I have no problem with the caste, I can go for any kind of a girl.

"I don't care about it. I am just looking for a good girl." When asked for detail about which parts of the world he was seeking to make acquisitions.

"Earlier, when I used to go overseas and people would find out I am from India, they would say: 'You must know about snakes.' Now when I go overseas, they say: 'Here is my laptop. Can you fix it?'" When speaking about skill shortage in India.

GVK  vice chairman GV Sanjay Reddy:

"MBA schools in India have to have a subject called ego management. It is very important and I am not joking." Reddy was speaking about the difficulty in dealing with local people, politicians, and bureaucrats while trying to get projects done in India.

Morgan Stanley managing director Gautam Bhandari:

"Unfortunately there's a generation of people who are computer engineers, which is good, but I don't think they can build roads."

"The amount of investment that is required to set up a typical 1300 megawatt power plant exceeds the amount of investment that was made to start Google."