The Case for Declaring a Financial Emergency for Infrastructure Development in India: A Civil Engineer’s Perspective

Abstract

Economic development in India has been uneven, in spite of dazzling growth in gross domestic product in the past decade, but a fiscal crisis appears to be possible, especially given the internal disturbances in the country and the threat of external uncertainty. An additional concern is environmental damage, which can be reversed by the honest enforcement of proper civil engineering principles and technical conditions; indeed, about 90% of India’s economic growth can be estimated as engineering growth, given the massive outlays to housing, infrastructure, defense production, agriculture production, and related engineering industries. This paper proposes that declaring a financial emergency to allow land acquisition for freeway construction and infrastructure development may be the only alternative that will allow the Indian economy to move forward. The paper extends a management theory of leadership to nations, explores the types of emergencies allowed in democratic India, studies the process of declaring a financial emergency, and discusses the difficulties of sustaining and maintaining an emergency without human rights abuses. Although declaring a financial emergency is a drastic measure, such a measure is seen as necessary for India’s economy and urban and rural infrastructure to emerge, and endemic poverty to recede.