Editorial

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 […]

The pandemic and lockdown have dealt a body blow to urban transport systems. India’s metros were shut down from late March to early September this year, leading to huge revenue losses. Even now, safety and […]

This issue marks our twenty-second anniversary. In our past special anniversary issues, we used to review trends and developments in the previous 12 months, examine key issues and discuss the future outlook. This anniversary issue […]

There has been a steady increase in the demand for tunnel construction across the infrastructure space due to the needs of diverse sectors such as railways, metro systems, roads, hydropower, and water supply and sewerage. […]

The pandemic and its economic impact has led to a dramatic crash in global fuel demand and prices have fallen as well. India’s demand too has fallen in sync with the national lockdown. But this […]

The pandemic has had a very negative impact on trade. At the same time, it has emphasised the need for accelerating the digitalisation of all processes at India’s ports. As it stood, the Sagarmalaprogramme did […]

As of now, as is the case in so many other sectors, IR is intent on surviving the pandemic and lockdown without suffering more than the inevitable losses. However, once the lockdown ends, IR will […]

India’s mining sector has never performed to its innate potential because it has been hobbled by many negative factors. While the country possesses substantial natural resources, mining has always been a low-tech undertaking. There are […]