Infrastructure 'sine qua non' for robust growth: Survey

New Delhi: Terming infrastructure as "sine qua non" for achieving robust growth, the Economic Survey 2015-16 said government has accorded top priority to the sector and has undertaken a slew of steps to augment it.

The Survey, presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however expressed concern over stressed advances of the infrastructure sector which increased to 24 percent in June 2015, from 22.9 percent in March 2015.

Underlining that the Survey comes at a time of unusual volatility in the international economic environment with market swinging on fears that the global recovery may be faltering, the government said India stands out as a haven of stability and an outpost of opportunity.

"Its economic growth is amongst the highest in the world, helped by a reorientation of government spending toward needed public infrastructure," the Survey said.

"Many policy measures taken by the government ... Have started showing its impact on increased FDI inflows, better performance of infrastructure sector. The landmark initiatives like Make in India...Would also help in transforming infrastructure sector which is sine qua non for achieving and sustaining higher economic growth," it said.

Enhanced public investment in infrastructure has been emphasised to 'crowd-in' private investments, the Survey said.

It said development of the infrastructure sector has been a priority area for the government and has witnessed enhanced public investment.

"Many reforms have been initiated in the infrastructure sector, resulting in robust growth in most of the sectors. Major infrastructure sectors, namely power, road, railways, civil aviation, ports and telecommunication, have performed better during 2014-15 as compared to 2013-14," it said.

Electricity generation in the country during the current year registered a growth of 4.4 percent, it said adding, a total of 3030 MW of grid-connected power generation capacity from renewable energy sources like solar and wind has been added so far this fiscal, taking the cumulative generation capacity in the country to over 38,820 MW from the sources.

The contribution of five sub-sectors -- mining, iron and steel, textiles, infrastructure and aviation (which together accounted for 24.2 percent of the total advances of SCBs as of June 2015) to the total stressed advances was 53 percent.

"Stressed advances in the aviation sector increased to 61 percent in June 2015 from 58.9 percent in March 2015, while stressed advances of the infrastructure sector increased to 24 percent from 22.9 percent during the same period," it said.

The Survey said the performance of these sectors and their impact on the asset quality of banks continue to be a cause for concern.

The government said it is implementing a major public investment programme to strengthen infrastructure and make up for the deficiency of private investment.