Public Private Partnership in Infrastructure Development of Rural Areas: Opportunities and Challenges in India

Abstract

India got its independence carrying a legacy of around 90 percent of its people living in rural areas, with around 15 percent of the people literate, more than 80 percent population dependent on traditional farming with massive poverty, poor infrastructure, unbalance regional development and backwardness. At the time of independence, sustainable socio-economic development was the utmost priority of the national government. Infrastructure development was obviously a very important component of development. Agriculture continues to be a fundamental instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction. The vision of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam of a developed India by 2020 cannot be expected without the development of rural areas as it constitutes 68.84 percent according to the census 2011 (provisional). There is lack of basic infrastructure like roads, transport, power, water supply and sanitation, irrigation, telecommunication, education and health services, etc. in rural villages. Elimination of poverty, ignorance, diseases, inequality of opportunities and providing a better and higher quality of life were the basic premises upon which all the plans and blue-prints of development were built. Many programmes like Indira Awas Yojana, Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Bharat Nirman, Central Rural Sanitation Programme, National Rural Health Mission, etc. were initiated by the government to boost infrastructure development. These programmes did not achieve much success in addressing the infrastructure deficit. The government is only restructuring and combining the programmes like Integrated Rural Development Programme and allied programmes i.e. Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment, Ganga Kalyan Yojana, Million Wells Scheme, etc. to Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana which was again restructured to National Rural Livelihood Mission to reduce the poverty and improving the quality of life. There is lot of corruption in government initiated programmes and schemes, lack of expertise, absence of coordination and allocation of meagre funds from central, state and local government. Public Private Partnerships (PPP) can supplement the infrastructure deficit as well as sustainable development of rural areas. In the beginning, PPP technique was restricted to the road sector. Presently, the government is resorting to this arrangement in areas such as education, health, transport, power, water supply and sanitation, irrigation, telecommunication and other related infrastructure services to underpin both accelerated sustainable infrastructure development and improved service delivery. As of August 2012, 881 PPP projects have been initiated and most projects are in education, health, roads and power. It helped in revolutionising telecommunication, connecting rural roads with state and national highways, educational, power, water supply and sanitation in rural areas. The government amended many policies for implementing PPP projects, but it still faces people's protest against land acquisition and user charges (tolls), lack of incentives given by governments to private players in rural areas, no fast track approval of projects and many projects are urban centred. PPP can be profitably harnessed to reinforce India's position on the world map.