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km of national highways, trains handling cargo of 1,600 MT, doubling
gas pipeline network to 35,000 km, having total 220 airports, airstrips
and aerodromes, a 25000-acre area developed for industries, including
11 industrial corridors, achieving a Rs 1.7 lakh crore turnover in defense
production and having 38 electronics manufacturing clusters and 109
pharma clusters by 2024-25.

Road construction and Installed Electricity generation trend in India
[5]

Government needs significant amount of revenues to push for
infrastructural initiatives, more so already stretched fiscal deficit (over
6.5%) in addressing pandemic situation. Along with the investment cycle,
the PLI schemes if properly executed could create significant opportunities
for the manufacturing sector and non-government jobs in general.
Infrastructure building or revival of the investment cycle, in general,
would require the private sector to also start contributing. Disinvestment
and monetization of assets would be critical for government to achieve
this significant capital. Air India’s sell has been a step in right direction.
India’s largest public sector insurer LIC’s (Life Insurance Corporation of
India) IPO launch is next in line. Government focus on governance than
running the business is the step in the right direction.
Union Budget 2021-22 laid out the ‘Asset Monetisation’ programme
and recognised it as an important financing option for new infrastructure
creation. The Union Budget mandate helped in providing a significant
impetus and direction to the programme by identifying asset classes,
ministries and CPSEs and by giving a mandate for a dashboard and
a National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) focusing exclusively on
‘brownfield infrastructure assets’.
As of May 2020, there were 153 operational airports in India, up from

156