Infrastructure

India's infrastructure - both in rural and urban areas - needs radical transformation. Most Indian cities have been growing rapidly in terms of population, and infrastructure in most metros, and even smaller towns, is creaking under the burden. While we have taken major strides in adding infrastructure - everything from new modes of urban transportation to better roads, internet and telecom connectivity, and power supply - we have always been a step behind the growth in population and the demands it creates.

What India needs to do now is to build new cities from scratch. The smart cities programme is designed for precisely that. It is also looking at regenerating the older cities. Meanwhile, experiments are on to see if villages can be made smarter too.

This section looks at how these experiments are faring. We start off with the progress of the Smart Cities project and then look at digital village experiments, ideas for smarter transportation and, finally, discuss how the airports of the future will look like.

Also, India is running out of water. The per capita availability has dropped from 5,177 cubic metres in 1951 to 1,545 cubic metres in 2011, below the stress level of 1,700 cubic metres. One reason is inefficient use of this scarce resource. But this need not cause a crisis. There are solutions that can be used on a large scale. From desalination plants to smart water management systems, they are all being tried out in India.

We also look at how India is meeting the challenges of meeting its epic energy needs and at the same time keeping the damage to the environment at the minimum.