Public Private Partnerships of India

Despite high economic growth throughout the first years of the 21st century, in recent years India has suffered from a weakening economy. Factors contributing to the economic slowdown include a lack of adequate and quality infrastructure. Both federal and provincial governments have taken steps to make the market more attractive to private sector investment.

The government has stated that PPPs will play a significant role in attracting private sector investment for the provision of public assets and social infrastructure development. Since the turn of the century, India has witnessed considerable growth in PPPs and has emerged as one of the leading PPP markets in the world. India has several PPP success stories to date, for example the National Highway Development Program. There is also potential to implement PPP projects in under-developed sectors such as power, education and health.
The Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee was set up by the government to oversee the appraisal and approval of PPP projects. Extensive support has been given for the implementation of PPP projects through project development funds, viability gap funding and user charge reforms, amongst others. PPPs are now widely considered the preferred development route in many sectors.

Public-private partnerships are expected to account for approximately 50 per cent of the infrastructure spend of US$1,000 billion in India’s Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17). The government is now taking steps to further streamline PPP processes by drafting a national PPP policy