The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I) organized “India Infrastructure e-Conclave”: Indian Infrastructure: The Backbone of Progression on 16th December, 2022. Infrastructure is a key area in India’s transition towards 2030 and Vision 2047. Efforts for Atma-Nirbhar Bharat, announcement of National Infrastructure Pipeline projects, Gati Shakti-National Master Plan, setting up a new Development Finance Institution will be significant in achieving the $5 trillion Indian economy. The coming years will see the infrastructure sector establishing new benchmarks in project management, timely execution, implementation and completion of projects, and quality inputs within the time and cost targets. Government’s vision to become a USD 5 trillion economy may be a formidable task, but is achievable, nevertheless. In this background, the E-Conclave brought the relevant stakeholders from all over the country together at a single platform to brainstorm on the opportunities and challenges.

The E-Conclave focussed on Sustainability, Infrastructure Financing, Technology and Investment in the Infrastructure Sector. The E-Conclave was addressed by the Chief Guest Mr. Bhushan Kumar, Joint Secretary, Sagarmala & PPP, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Government of India, Mr. D K Sen, Whole-time Director and Senior Executive Vice President (Development Projects), L&T, Mr. P R Jaishankar, MD, IIFCL, Mr. Himanshu Chaturvedi, Chief Strategy Officer, Tata Projects, Mr. Subir Hazra, Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, GMR Services Business, GMR Group, Mr. Sudip Mazumder, Head-Digital Manufacturing & Special projects, LNTECC, Mr. Vineet Jaiswal, Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Vedanta Resources Limited, Mr. Anand Sirohi, Director, Trimble, Mr. Kalyan Vaidyanathan, Director, Business Development, Bentley Systems, Mr. Rakesh K. Singh, Group Head - Investment Banking, Private Banking, Marketing & Products, HDFC Bank, Mr. Suman Saha, CEO, Kotak Infrastructure Fund, Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd., Mr. Manish Agarwal, Infrastructure Financing & Regulation Specialist and Former Partner, Leader - Capital Projects & Infrastructure, PwC, Mr. Abhilesh Babel, Senior Expert, McKinsey & Company, Mr. Madhur Bansal, Partner, McKinsey & Company.

According to Mr. Bhushan Kumar, Joint Secretary, Sagarmala & PPP, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Government of India, the banks and financial institutions should look to cut down the time taken for conducting technical feasibility study and doing the due diligence for infrastructure projects by adopting digital technology. This would ensure smooth implementation of the large pipeline of infrastructure projects which the country needs for rapid economic growth. It typically takes two to three years for any project to start implementation as it takes time to conduct the technical feasibility study, DPR and due diligence. Some digital technologies can be innovated to cut down and standardise a couple of things. Mr. Kumar also highlighted the need for focusing on funding the floating infrastructure which has been neglected so far. He said that when we talk about infrastructure funding initiatives, we mainly talk about the hard infrastructure and floating infrastructure is not getting attention from bankers, financiers as well as infrastructure players. That is a grey area and if we can work around this, there is a big opportunity. Mr. Kumar further added that the logistics cost of India, which accounts for nearly 14-15 per cent of the country’s GDP, is much higher than the global average, which is anywhere between 7-8 per cent. This is primarily because of certain inefficiencies in operations. In percentage terms, it may seem a small number, but if converted, it comes to close to ₹10-11 lakh crore which goes waste just due to logistics inefficiencies. Mr Bhushan urged that the private sector, government and all the other stakeholders should work together to improve on that.