Crisil seeks more policy and regulatory reforms in Infrastructure segments

The government set aside $1 trillion for infrastructure segments like power, road and ports over the next five years. But Crisil opines that there is a need for urgent reforms in policy and regulatory areas to assure that benefits of the progress achieved reach the largest but poorest socio-economic group.

According to Sameer Bhatia, Crisil Infrastructure Advisory president, said, over the years various infrastructure segments have significantly evolved mainly due to reforms, private sector interest and strong investment flows. Today, they are at a point which calls for the next level of initiatives to reap the fruits of the first wave of reforms and policy initiatives. 

He also said, "As that the first wave was oriented towards sharing responsibility with the private sector in developing infrastructure, the next wave has to be oriented towards ensuring that the desired benefits are available to the man on the street in an efficient manner."

Mr. Bhatia said, "regulations in power sector led to implementation of key reforms like de-licensing in generation, unbundling of utilities leading to development of a competitive power market. Now, the sector requires next genre of reforms in terms of realisation of open access to provide end-consumers the option of choosing suppliers, technology transformation and upgrade in transmission and distribution, as well as more private sector participation in distribution."