India continues gradual approach to infrastructure

If it's been said once, it's been said a thousand times -- India has a severe infrastructure deficit. From its rudimentary airports to its overcrowded trains, the need is evident everywhere and, unless things change, and change fast, all those new Tata Nanos taking to the road are only going to make matters worse.

Nothing is more embarrassing than India's infrastructure, says Rajeev Malik, Macquarie's head of India and Asean Association of Southeast Asian Nations economics, at the bank's annual Asia-Pacific Infrastructure and Transportation conference in Hong Kong this week.

India's Planning Commission, the government body responsible for the country's five-year plans, projected a need for $520 billion in infrastructure investment through 2012. An estimated...