Unit-4

Infrastructure in Economic Development of India

Syllabus Content
Meaning and Importance - Major issues in infrastructure with special reference to Railways, Road transport and Power Development of IT Sector for in India its contributions to Indian economy Importance of Human resources development- Major thrust areas in human resource development.

WHAT IS INFRASTRUCTURE?
Infrastructure provides supporting services in the main areas of industrial and agricultural production, domestic and foreign trade and commerce. These services include roads, railways, ports, airports, dams, power stations, oil and gas pipelines, telecommunication facilities, the countrys educational system including schools and colleges, health system including hospitals, sanitary system including clean drinking water facilities and the monetary system including banks, insurance and other financial institutions.

Categories
Economic
Energy Transportation Communication

Social
Education Health Housing

IMPORTANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE
Increasing the productivity of the factors of production Improving the quality of life of its people

Indian Railway
Indian Railways completed 160 years on April 16, 2013 The railways in India are the largest rail web in Asia and the worlds second largest under one management. With a huge workforce of about 1.65 million, it runs some 11,000 trains everyday, including 7,000 passenger trains.

SWOT Analysis of Indian Railways

S
Strengths
1. Low cost land near country stations provides possibility for development 2. Less damage of goods compared to other modes of transport 3. Better connectivity 4. More carrying capacity of goods 5. Largest commercial employer with almost 1.5 million staff 6. It transports over six billion passengers and almost 750 million tons of freight annually 7. Approx 120,000 km of tracks and nearly 8000 stations

Weaknesses
1. Passenger sector is loss making 2. Accidents and delays cause a dent to the image 3. Facilities not comparable to international standards still

Opportunities 1.It can capture large portion of container traffic by introducing block container trains operating at passenger speeds 2.Its 70% of revenue and most of its profits comes from freight sector and there is a tremendous growth in emerging companies, therefore has a great future for freight sector 3.Operating ratio has been decreasing drastically in last 10 years

Threats

1.Increase in allowable gross weight of road vehicles 2.Possible introduction of double road trailers 3.High accident rates

Indias Road Network

(Km)

National Highways Expressways State Highways Other Roads Total

78,651 200 1,56,181 44,55,510 46,90,542