The importance of infrastructure to a nation can be understood by comparing it to the importance of a skeleton to a body. As the skeleton plays the decisive role in making a body perform its actions and not just perform but perform with efficiency, exactly the same role is being played by the infrastructure in making a nation stand on its feet and perform its actions with efficiency. This can also be practically witnessed in the success of major developed nations today; whether it’s the US or Europe or China, all of these nations (or continents) have been able to achieve such economic prowess only after putting in a strong will for creating an infrastructure that can sustain their rise as a major developing nation. Hence, in this article, we will track and discuss the infrastructural development of India post-independence; this will be more of appreciating scrutiny than harsh critique.
As we are well aware of the havoc of the British rule in India, it not only destroyed the backbone of the existing economy but also pushed the nation into a shell from which to even imagine a prosperous future was like wishful thinking. Post-independence India never focused on the odds; if it had, the present we have today would not have been possible. Although the problems with India after independence were real and severe, at the time of India's independence in 1947, agriculture and its allied sectors (such as forestry and fishing) were the backbone of the economy, contributing approximately 50% to 55% of the national GDP. It was the dominant sector by a wide margin, and at the time, it also engaged roughly 70% to 75% of the country's total workforce. So, the very first thing that India needed to do was to work intensely on its secondary and tertiary sectors (manufacturing and services industry), and for that it required adequate infrastructure such as roads, highways, railways, airports, ports, and inland waterways for transportation (which is key to the mobility of the economy), also power plants for energy, dams and canals for irrigation, and further to extend the economy and manage flow with banking systems and digital payment gateways. After all these things, it also required well-functioning educational institutes and healthcare facilities to develop the human capital.
Albeit, India started slowly but steadily. The early focus was on ‘agriculture,’ as at that time, the nation was suffering from frequent incidents of famines, and most of the cereals and other agricultural products were to be imported to sustain and feed the population (which was also at a surge). The ‘Green Revolution’ and the role of MS Swaminathan were the landmark in the improved state of agriculture in India. Although India could not achieve a lot in the first fifty years of its independence in terms of infrastructural development amid the socio-economic complications of the nation, which required the major focus of the planning system. However, India somehow managed to build the groundwork for the modern economy. The total road network was 0.4 million km in 1950, which extended to 3.4 million km by 2000; the railway route length extended from 53,596 km to 63,000 km; and the power capacity increased from 1.7 GW to 100 GW. Apart from these, the institutional and strategic infrastructure, like IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), was built to supply the skilled human capital; the number of IITs built till 2000 was 6 (approaching 7), and universities also expanded from 30 to 266. Nevertheless, numbers never tell the whole story. It is true that economically India could not perform to its potential after the independence; the growth rates of the economy were also stagnant. But the true picture can only be understood if we look at the whole of the circumstances at that time. India fought five major conventional wars: four with Pakistan (1947, 1965, 1971, 1999) and one with China (1962); the social conditions of the nation were also vulnerable, where a major focus of the state was involved in the creation of a welfare state and not going with a pure capitalism model.
India did major reforms in 1991, when it opened the economy with the LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization) policy. Even after the introduction of the reforms, it required a lot of time to build an ecosystem. But the major leap in infrastructure building came after the first decade of the 21st century; indeed, that leap came upon the already-made base in the preceding years, but it can still be argued that the delay was more deliberate than accidental. Now, if we talk about the contemporary position, the road network has expanded to 6.6 million km, driven by projects like Bharatmala and PM Gati Shakti. The construction pace has moved from a crawl in the early decades to over 30 km per day currently. The power sector is perhaps the most radical shift. We have moved from a reliance on small, isolated power plants to a massive grid capacity exceeding 520 GW, with a rapidly growing share (now over 50%) coming from non-fossil fuel sources. The number of IITs has grown to 23, which is key in training the top-class engineers. Schemes like UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) and Sagarmala have fueled the aviation and maritime sectors. With 163 functional airports and around 12 ports, this sector is flourishing. One of the major reasons behind this radical turnaround is the shift in the approach of the state. Now, the government is more focused on creating an ecosystem that not only supports the homegrown startups but also partners with them. Moreover, the schemes promoting ease of doing business and providing them easy access to credit, as well as the decriminalization of many technical or civil errors, have solidified the trust of new-generation entrepreneurs in the government for helping them build their businesses. The biggest dividend of this culture is the digital infrastructure that India has built in the last ten years. UPI (Unified Payment Interface) is one of the most solid developments of India, and the shifting of all the government machinery from files and counters to data and portals would never have been possible without such a radical change in the approach.
India is currently the 4th largest economy in the world, strongly approaching 3rd rank (possibly by 2027); the infrastructural rise of India in the last decade is commendable. However, in 1950, the challenge was existence (simply building the first link). In 2026, the challenge is efficiency (ensuring those links are high-speed, digital, and sustainable). No matter how fast our growth is, we still can’t ignore the issue of inequality in the society. Our GDP has grown significantly, but the per capita income is still an issue, so we can celebrate the growth, but the work is still half done as a stratum of the society is still unable to access the most fundamental necessities. Although that should not stop us from championing what has been done, being a nation that was doubted even to survive as a nation amid its diversity, we have not only survived but thrived and are rooting to even solidify our position in the global arena.
— Saurabh Srivastava