Construction Industry News
This two-part article discusses the origins of the Gati Shakti master plan, the NDA government's flagship Rs 100 trillion infrastructure scheme, and the current challenges posed by funding and governance issues caused by a change in the original project specifications. We will also explore what can be done using financial innovation and proven governance structures to get nearly 1,800 projects back on track within Gati Shakti, saving millions of rupees and creating more than 36 million new jobs.
Gati Shakti, as it is now known, was previously called the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) when it became a regulation of the Government of India on 15 August 2019.
The congressional manifesto – back in the 2019 general election – contained a mega-plan called the Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY), or Universal Basic Income Scheme, which would transfer Rs 72,000 per year to the poorest 20 percent of households in India. In addition, Congress pledged to make job creation the No. 1 priority, in both the public and private sectors, by filling all the 4 lakh central government vacancies by March 2020 and urging the state governments to fill their 20 vacancies. to fulfill lakh.
As expected, the publication of the Congress Manifesto posed a huge challenge to the BJP and the manifesto team was desperate for a BIG idea that could successfully meet the posed challenge.
In fact, the urgency within the BJP manifesto committee in April 2019 to come up with a big idea was a great opportunity to launch a massive national development project that could simultaneously help double the size of India's economy from $2 .7 trillion to $5 trillion and create 36 million new jobs in the construction and related industries.
As mentioned earlier, a plan titled "Construct India Mission" was conceived as early as 2017 and submitted to the Ministry of Commerce during the term of the previous NDA government. It helped that this Rs 87 trillion plan and its capacity to create 36 million new jobs had been evaluated by the then Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu and recommended it for official support by the Ministry of Commerce as a national plan. . Therefore, the Construct India Mission presentation and concept note were sent to Suresh Prabhu as input to the BJP Manifesto, with a copy to all members of the BJP Manifesto Committee.
The note came in and Meenakshi Lekhi (Foreign Minister) and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe (MP), both members of the BJP manifesto committee, wrote back to say that the Construct India mission would be considered for inclusion in the BJP manifesto . Thus, a crucial first step was taken to make a visionary initiative a reality by putting it on the agenda of a major political party.
With this, the BJP now had a plan to potentially double India's GDP while creating millions of new jobs. Therefore, the plan was much more sustainable than Congress' universal basic income scheme, which lacked a viable source of funding.
