The recent TOT bids have shown that this model can be ideal for international institutional investors who have appetite for long-term investments and access to low-cost debts.

About 24,800 km of road projects are to be developed over the next five years between 2017-18 and 2021-22 under the ambitious Bharatmala Programme.

We have already started working on most of the projects that were conceived under the smart city proposal, whether it is area-based development (ABD) or pan city development.

We have a number of projects in the pipeline. We are trying to start with smart buses, which will run inter and intra-city.

There are many sources to fund projects envisaged by selected smart cities. One of the important means is grants by governments-state and central. In fact, the smart cities can structure themselves to monetise some of the assets under their possession and identify revenue-generating projects.

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.

India's fragile and finite water resources are depleting, while the multi-sectoral needs of water from sustained economic growth (over 8 per cent) will further increase demand for water with supporting dynamics like increased energy and consumption.

There is a silver lining here: For the past two years, the Modi government has been adopting a broad strategy to substantially improve India's dismal WB ranking for ease of doing business. Concerted efforts have been made to remove serious bottlenecks that exist in the numerous business laws and a "holistic approach"taken.

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) expects primary market activities in the corporate bond market to remain steady, however, growth will be protracted owing to muted capex plan for Corporate India.