Booster dose for Indian economy

Radha Dhir, CEO & Country Head, India, JLL

India, with its clarion call for net carbon zero emissions by 2070, has set out cleantech and green energy as the foundational pillars for the infrastructure roadmap under PM GatiShakti. The PM GatiShakti scheme has become the overarching umbrella for all infrastructure augmentation plans for multi-modal connectivity and achieving logistics efficiency across the country. PM GatiShakti is a great push towards making logistics and supply chain much more efficient with reduced logistics costs for all stakeholders. Aligning the National Infrastructure Pipeline under this umbrella, the seven engines of change are roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways, and logistics infrastructure. Also, the creation of a Unified Logistics Interface Platform will enable a reduction in logistics cost and time.

Additionally, new expenditure announcements were made around the development of Tier II and III cities with an overhaul of their building laws, development of transit-oriented corridors with an intent for building urban capacity. This will be supported by interest-free loans to state governments for the same purposes also incorporate sustainability as a major intent.

The announcement on the issuance of sovereign green bonds to support green infrastructure development also indicates the seriousness and the nation’s intent of leading the action against climate change. Support to Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure and production linked scheme for solar panel manufacturing also steps in the same direction.

The Budget has provided various policy incentives that are expected to benefit the real estate sector. Policy measures like land record digitization, allocation of INR 48,000 crore under PM housing schemes, completion of 8 million homes by FY 2023 and replacement of SEZ laws are expected to act as catalysts for real estate sector. In addition to this, infrastructure status to data centres, digital connectivity and 5G spectrum allocation will further give a boost to the sector.

The land record digitalization programme will build an integrated land Information Management System across the country which will facilitate transparent and litigation free land transfers. This step is expected to provide a big boost for the warehousing and logistics industry.

The PM housing scheme is expected to achieve the ‘Housing for all’ objective with 8 million beneficiaries. This will lead to higher growth of affordable housing. The spending on various housing projects is expected to create demand for real estate linked industries.

The grant of infrastructure status to data centres is expected to provide access to cheaper and long-term institutional funds which will promote the investments in the sector. The data centre industry capacity is expected to double from 499 MW in H1 2021 to 1008 MW in 2023. Increasing optic fiber network and 5G spectrum allocation would mean higher digital push which will increase real estate demand.