In an exclusive interview with INFRASTRUCTURE TODAY, Ajay Pandey, Managing Director, Group CEO of GIFT City, outlines how an ideal greenfield city should be.

In what should have been a major story that was buried under other headlines, India achieved a significant milestone in its Digital India programme when 100,000-gram panchayats, or village councils, across the country were connected through a high-speed optical fibre network called BharatNet.

Improved rural incomes, higher rural credit and increased allocation for the rural, agricultural and allied sectors are likely to boost rural demand, including the requirement for rural housing.

The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is in itself a path-breaking fiscal reform. Corporate tax and other indirect taxes may be revamped keeping in view GST requirement.

The Union Budget for fiscal 2018 has a progressive outlook and encourages investments with initiatives like affordable housing being given infrastructure status to avail new funding avenues. The Budget has expanded the scope for the capital and bond markets.

Sandeep Upadhyay - MD & CEO, Centrum Infrastructure Advisory Ltd, says that a more consultative process involving the NHAI and all stakeholders, by giving due weightage to the lenders, would result in a win-win situation for infrastructure development in India.

The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) has received another major boost with the government-owned India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) offering its support for the financing and development of viable infrastructure projects.

In a move that could help consolidation, the government, just this September, approved rules for spectrum trading, allowing companies to buy and sell spectrum among themselves.

This article sheds light on the implications of the applicability of the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) regime to the REITs (and the exemption there from) in the context of boosting affordable urban infrastructure.