In the past decade, the government’s seriousness in transforming the country into a global manufacturing hub reflects in its seriousness on respecting execution timelines as well as the uptick in spending coupled with focus on large infrastructure projects.

Speaking to businessline as a guest on the State of Economy (SoE) podcasts, Rahul Prithiani, who is the Global Head for Energy and Sustainability, Consulting at CRISIL Market Intelligence and Analytics, said that in the last 10 years, India’s has clearly demonstrated its seriousness in becoming a $5 trillion economy.

On major changes India witnessed in the last decade, he opined that there has been a gradual acceleration in spending by the government. Furthermore, a lot of sector specific policy activity across sectors has taken place, which led to relatively faster execution of projects.

“I think it’s very clear in terms of scale, ambition and as we move towards being a $5-6 trillion economy by the turn of the decade, we will see relatively larger investments in infrastructure on energy and transportation, two key elements in the entire piece. If you look at the energy space, the power sector is expected to see a demand growth of over 6 per cent also over the next 5 to 7 years, which is a fairly large number,” he elaborated.

To achieve this, Prithiani said the government will have to constantly review its policies to make sure that the regulations and policies continuously evolve with the changing environment, advent of green finance and the need for sustainability.

At least our expectation is that over the next 6-7 years, India is expected to grow in the region of 6-7 per cent, which would mean a need for extensive infrastructure,” he emphasised.

On whether India’s image as an investment destination has undergone any change in the past few decades, Prithiani said that there is an acknowledgement of the sincere efforts being made by the government.

“People do acknowledge (that) there are policy related challenges, but as long as there is a response to those problems and we are evolving that is something I think most people are building in their overall investment thesis,” he added.

Asked if announcing future capacity adding and bidding trajectories by the government helps investors make more informed decisions about India, Prithiani said that announcing timelines does offer better visibility about the sector. However, commitment to deliver is the key.

“The key is that you should be able to deliver on those targets and that the commitment seen will continue to remain. What we are able to deliver compared to what our plans are. So, that is something to watch out for,” he opined.