Former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant Urges Raising Infra Spend to 6.5% of GDP

Former NITI Aayog CEO and G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said India must raise infrastructure spending from 4% to 6.5% of GDP to realize the Viksit Bharat vision. Speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave, he stressed that effective execution, innovative financing, and climate-resilient design were as important as funding itself.

If achieved, India’s investment levels would approach China’s current infrastructure spending of about 6.7% of GDP. The United States, by contrast, spends around 2.3%. During its peak growth years in the 2000s and early 2010s, China’s infrastructure investment reached nearly 24% of GDP, helping fuel its rapid expansion.

Kant said India’s growth story now depends on building infrastructure as the backbone of economic transformation.