India will seek to double expenditure on economic and social infrastructure to about $1-trillion between 2012 and 2017, when compared with the $500-billion budgeted under the current five-year plan, running from 2007 to 2012.

Briefing South African journalists in New Dehli this week, India’s Ministry of External Affairs joint secretary and spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said that India was targeting to increase the proportion of infrastructure’s share of gross domestic product to 9,95%.

India’s Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Ahluwalia said that, while 30% of the investment in the current, or eleventh, plan period was projected to come from the private sector, this proportion could rise to 50% during the twelfth five-year-plan period.

He argued that the development of the country’s infrastructure could not be the responsibility of the public sector alone, especially given the scarcity of resources, which would need to be directed to areas such as education and health.

Infrastructure would be developed, therefore, through a combination of public investment and public-private partnerships.

About 300-million people lived in urban areas, of which about 150-million did not have access to services, and indications were that expansion into urban services would be significant.

Power, roads, ports, airports, telecommunications and railways would also feature strongly in the plan, which was still to be finalised.

“The Indian economy is growing, and we are focused on the country’s internal market and increasing our exports. We have a trade deficit and imbalance, and we need to develop our technologies and infrastructure and we also need natural resources,” Prakash concluded.

Creamer Media’s Brindaveni Naidoo is in India on a tour hosted by the Indian government.