Editorial

The global aviation industry has absorbed heavy losses amounting to an estimated $190 billion since the start of the pandemic. While there are some signs of nascent recovery, the industry is still struggling to cope […]

Power demand is intimately associated with economic activity and slated to grow steadily. The post-Covid rebound, alongside extreme summer temperatures, has led to record peak demand in June. Alongside expanding its generation capacity, India must […]

Infrastructure development suffered a big blow during the pandemic due to the halt in construction. Among the worst hit sectors were urban water supply, and sewage and wastewater management systems. Even prior to the pandemic, […]

 Although revenues in 2020-21 were badly impacted by the pandemic, the railways continued to push ahead with a series of important projects, which will build capacity and improve efficiencies across the network. In 2021-22, freight […]

Growth requires energy and as the economy grows, India’s energy demand is projected to double to 1,516 mtoe by 2035, from 753.7 mtoe in 2017. India already imports almost 90 per cent of its crude […]

After suffering deep contractions due to the pandemic in fiscal year 2020-21, maritime trade has recovered smartly in 2021-22. By the next fiscal year, traffic is expected to exceed pre-Covid levels and, given a combination […]

After experiencing a deep recession during the first and second waves of the pandemic, the construction industry is making a strong recovery. Activity is back to above pre-Covid levels. The revival has been driven by […]

Policymakers are looking at massive infrastructure development to help revive an economy that has been hit hard by successive waves of the pandemic. But in order to meet the ambitious targets, India needs to spend […]

The road sector has delivered a commendable performance through 18 months of Covid-related disruptions, and it should improve as India heads towards normalisation. There has been momentum, despite labour shortages during lockdowns, and a paradoxical […]

The rapid urbanisation of semi-rural areas and migration of rural labour to existing urban areas have led to increasing demands being placed on urban transport. In order to meet this demand, the penetration of metro […]

Given the large pipeline of projects, tunnelling will be an area of opportunity for both domestic and overseas construction companies over the next five years or more. Apart from road and rail construction, there are […]

After decades of steady expansion in energy demand, India experienced a hiatus in 2020-21. This is no surprise, for energy consumption is directly associated with economic activity and the pandemic, with its associated lockdowns, caused […]

The hiatus in global trade caused by the pandemic offers a breathing space for the ports and shipping sector. A recovery will be dependent on the revival of domestic industrial activity as well as activity […]

Indian Railways (IR) has used the hiatus enforced due to the lockdown to reboot and refurbish its infrastructure. IR’s revenues are tied to freight and passenger traffic. Therefore, it suffered huge losses during the lockdown […]

The mining sector carries a weight of about 14.4 per cent on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), but it grew at a compound annual growth rate of only 2.1 per cent between 2013 and […]

Maritime trade is intimately linked to the state of the global economy and it was badly affected by the pandemic. Apart from lower traffic, it derailed project timelines, led to unclaimed cargo clogging warehouses, labour […]

The construction industry faced extraordinary problems in 2020 due to the pandemic, the associated lockdown and the migration of labour back into the rural hinterland. The first calendar quarter (January-March 2020) was poor and the […]

 The pandemic and the associated lockdowns have severely impacted the infrastructure sector, along with the rest of the economy. Kick-starting infrastructure activity will require an enormous corpus of funding. Policymakers must find ways to attract […]

The aviation sector has been the hardest hit by the pandemic and the associated lockdowns. The one saving grace might be lower fuel costs but that hardly compensates for the catastrophic drop in passenger and […]

The road sector was badly impacted by the pandemic and the associated lockdowns. There will be lingering after-effects even though recovery has now started. On the positive side, NHAI and most state road authorities have […]