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300 Economic Survey 2021-22

8.59 Augmentation in navigation capacity of National Waterway-1 (NW-1) is being
implemented since 2018 through the Jal Marg Vikas Project from Varanasi to Haldia stretch
of Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River System to enable large barge movements. Construction
of multi-modal terminals at Varanasi and Sahib Ganj have been completed and that of the
multimodal terminal at Haldia and the Navigational Lock at Farakka have achieved substantial
progress. The other projects such as comprehensive development of NW-2 and NW-16 &Indo-
Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route are proposed to be undertaken for a period of 5 years at a
cost of Rs. 461 crores and Rs.145.29 crores respectively, from 2020-21 to 2024-25.

8.60 There has been a continued increase in traffic and augmentation of capacity of major ports
(figure 33). In the backdrop of COVID-19 the traffic at major ports has suffered, declining by
4.57 percent between 2019-20 and2020-21, but capacity of major ports has been rising, though
at slower pace in recent years.

Box 7: Connecting PILLARS OF INDIA PM-GATI SHAKTI

Another milestone achieved which has heralded a new chapter in governance is the PM Gati
Shakti an integrated plan ensuring multi-modal and seamless connectivity for people, goods
and services. It covers16 ministries and infrastructure like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland
waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc. It is also expected to include social infrastructure like
hospitals and universities. With continuous improvement in digital infrastructure along with
development of economic zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors,
electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, agri zones, GATI-SHAKTI will improve
connectivity and make Indian businesses more competitive. It will also leverage technology
extensively including spatial planning tools with ISRO imagery developed by Bhaskaracharya
National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics. This is a constant endeavor to
build next generation infrastructure to improve ease of living as well as ease of doing business.

Telecom

8.61 India is the world’s second-largest telecommunications market. The telecommunication
sector is one of the most powerful sectors impacting social and economic development of a
country. A strong and a responsive regulatory framework has kept the service access at reasonable
prices. The Government has taken further measures to ensure fair competition among service
providers with the view to benefit the consumers (BOX 8).

8.62 The relevance of telecom sector has increased immensely. This can be gauged from
the fact that the total telephone subscriber base in India has increased from 933.02 million
in March 2014 to 1200.88 million in March 2021.In March 2021, 45 percent of subscribers
were based in rural India and 55 percent in urban areas (figure 35). Internet penetration in the
country is increasing steadily with internet subscribers increasing from 302.33 million in march
2015 to 833.71 million in June 2021. While 67.2 percent of internet subscribers had narrow-
band connections and 32.8 percent had broadband connections in 2015, the composition had
reversed by June 2021 with only 4 percent of subscribers having narrowband and 96 percent
with broadband connections (Figure 36).