Engaging India is an online column analysing the issues, trends and forces behind the business and politics shaping India and its impact on the world. Engaging India appears exclusively on FT.com India, a dedicated online section on India, and is written by Jo Johnson, the Financial Times’ South Asia bureau chief; Amy Yee, New Delhi correspondent; and Joe Leahy, Mumbai correspondent.

For India to realise its ambitions of sustaining 9 per cent annual GDP growth in the medium term and ensuring that the benefits of growth reach more and more people, sound infrastructure is critical.