Effectiveness of Government Initiatives in Infrastructure Development and Policies in India During Global Financial Crisis of 2008

With the burst of housing bubble in the United States in 2007-2008, the entire global financial system faced unprecedented issues with regards to its stability. Collapse of major financial institutions in United States and Europe elevated the sense of financial meltdown, following which a financial tsunami hit credit and equity markets around the world. With global corporate saddled under debt, it was time for governments to take the task of economic growth in their hands. Governments around the world used series financial stimulus to revive the growth. On the other hand developing economies in the world and in particular in Asia took initiatives to minimize the impact from global situation and later on looked into stabilization and growth issues. Development of infrastructure was one of the focal areas for most governments in crisis affected as well as developing countries. In India, despite Government spending on infrastructure was miniscule; India attempted to revive its infrastructure during the crisis era. Very little work has been done on this particular area, most research work is rather focused on stimulus response and tracking its effectiveness to GDP growth. This paper analyses policies and measures taken by Government of India in particular promoting Infrastructure development, it also discuss issues of balancing the growth within the infrastructure segment and constraints facing for securing funding these projects towards achieving sustainable development