The importance of the infrastructure sector in the Indian economy has been reiterated in the Union Budget of 2011-12. The government has planned an allocation of 214,000 cr towards developing the country’s infrastructure during 2011-12.

To smoothen the flow of funds to the infrastructure sector, Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) limit in corporate bonds in infrastructure has been raised by an additional limit of $20 bn, taking the limit to $25 bn. This will raise the total limit available to the FIIs for investment in corporate bonds to $40 bn. Since most companies in the sector are organized in the form of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), FIIs would now be permitted to invest in unlisted bonds with a minimum lock-in period of three years. In addition, the proposed disbursement target for India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL) is set at 25,000 cr for the FY12 which will allow it to provide long-term financial assistance to infrastructure projects. Further, the government has envisaged to come up with a comprehensive policy for further developing Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects. India is planning to raise about $1 tn during the 11th five year plan to fund a huge infrastructure development program. These progressive measures will go a long way in alleviating many of the existing bottlenecks of infrastructure financing in India and would enable the sector to cope up with the staggering industrial and overall economic growth of the country.

The current issue of the journal deals with the topics on ad hoc infrastructure for innovative technologies deployment, PPP in solid waste management, water crisis and working capital management at Hisar project of Reliance India Infrastructure Ltd.

The first paper, “Establishing an Ad Hoc Infrastructure for Innovative Technologies Deployment: The Case of Knowledge-Based Systems”, by Michel Grundstein, examines the ad hoc infrastructure requirement through different models. In the view of the author, Knowledge Management (KM) must address activities that utilize and create knowledge more than knowledge itself. The author has synthesized a socio-technical approach of KM into an empirical model, i.e., Model for General Knowledge Management within the Enterprise (MGKME). The author lays emphasis on two elements—ad hoc infrastructure and organizational learning process—that are essential to ensure the learning process which leads people to use appropriate concepts, methods and tools of KM. Subsequently, the author has used the Semi-opened Infrastructure model, Socialization, Externalization, Combination, Internalization (SECI) model and the Japanese concept of Ba.

The waste generation rates in India are lower than the low-income countries in other parts of the world and much lower compared to developed countries. However, lifestyle changes, especially in the larger cities, are leading to the use of more packaging materials and per capita waste generation is increasing by about 1.3% per year. With the urban population growing at 2.7% to 3.5% per annum, the yearly increase in the overall quantity of solid waste in the cities will be more than 5%. Solid Waste Management (SWM) poses a major challenge for almost all municipal bodies. Most Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are not able to collect all the waste generated in the city. Only a fraction of the waste collected is properly disposed. This poses risks to human health and the environment. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has estimated that waste generation will exceed 260 million tons per year by 2047—more than five times the present level. Against this backdrop, the second paper, “PPP in Solid Waste Management: A Study of Dehradun City in Uttarakhand”, by Sumeet Gupta and Ashish Kumar, makes an elaborate study of the solid waste management in Dehradun city and suggests the role of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with an integrated approach for the benefit of the urbanites. The author suggests an end-to-end solution by involving the private players in collection, transportation of waste and also processing of the same. The other benefits of proper management of solid waste include revenue from electricity generation, carbon credit, etc.

The human use and pollution of freshwater have reached a level where water scarcity will potentially limit food production, ecosystem function, and urban supply in the decades to come. The primary reason for this shortage is population growth, which has increased at a faster rate than food production for some years and will add up to 3 billion more people by the middle of the 21st century, mostly in poor and water-short countries. Water quality degradation has also contributed significantly to a number of problems of global concern, including human drinking water supply and species survival. Presently some 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion do not have sanitation services. Water pollution is a leading cause of death worldwide, and transmits or supports numerous debilitating diseases to people forced to drink contaminated water. In the absence of coordinated planning and international cooperation at an unprecedented scale, the next half century will be plagued by a host of severe water-related problems, threatening the entire ecosystem. The third paper, “The Global Water Crisis: Issues and Solutions”, by Manzoor K P, discusses the cause and consequence of water crisis and the probable solution to the same.

The last paper, “A Study of Working Capital Management of Hisar Project: Reliance Infrastructure Limited, India”, by Anubha Srivastava, exhaustively discusses the various aspects of working capital management focusing on receivable management, cash management and inventory management of RIL.

Pradeepta Kumar Samanta
Consulting Editor