`More cars yes, but where are the roads?'

`More cars yes, but where are the roads?'
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: As poor infrastructure concerns CEOs and captains of the Indian economy, even academicians of Indian origin engaged in the US universities have started voicing grievance against bad roads and shoddy airports.

Akash Deep, a Harvard University associate professor and a member of the American Finance Association and the Global Association of Risk Professionals, who was in Bangalore for a CEO forum on `Global Perspective on Financial Risk Valuation' organised by IIPM and Planman Consulting felt no different.

Speaking to this website's newspaper on the current Indian economic scenario, Deep said, ``there is no foretelling that India is poised for excitement in not just IT, but infrastructure problems worry me. It is wonderful that the country's financial structure has allowed more number of people to own cars, but the roads can't handle them. Bangalore is the world's IT destination, but where is the international airport to welcome them?''

The 36-year-old financial expert, who has led executive development programmes at the National University of Singapore, Goldman Sachs, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank also does not find it favourable to compare India with China. He admits China's infrastructure is far ahead of India, but then, ``though China has generated significant volumes in manufacturing and the US market can't think of other than `made-in-China' products, India can excel in its service quality. We can still source cheap from China and build on it with our service quality leading to an integrated economy.''

He wants India to grow independent of any world economic model and have more coherence in its policies, despite changing regimes.

``There is no underlying political continuity among policymakers, which investors would certainly not like. When regimes change at the Centre, politicians change policy for the heck of it. It will help the economy if there is a coherence in the policies in spite of political interests,'' avers Deep. He cautions that if India gets highlighted for its good news now, it equally gains importance if there is bad news also.