Infrastructure and Connectivity in India: Getting the Basics Right

Infrastructure helps in building productive capacity by bridging connectivity gaps, reducing distribution and trade costs, and facilitating the sharing of the benefits of growth with poorer groups and communities, among others. The evidence in this paper suggests the need for India to develop both hard as well as soft infrastructure for enhancing trade flows and growth. The existence of both aspects simultaneously will produce gains of a significantly higher order but one without the other is likely to be ineffective.