This year’s 10th India Construction Festival was special. It grew and how! Nearly 5,000 visitors attended the Roads & Highways Sustainable Technologies & Advancements (RAHSTA) Expo, the 22nd Construction World Global Awards with Engineering News-Record, the 12th Equipment India Awards, the RAHSTA Awards and the 14th RAHSTA Conference held at Jio Convention Centre on October 9-10 in Mumbai. You will find the mood play out across the photo feature being provided to you with this issue. Industry doyens, practitioners, academicians, entrepreneurs and experts kept the event fully charged right through the two days. Bookings for next year’s RAHSTA Expo, to be held on September 3-4, 2025, have already begun! Further, the National during the last ten years Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has requested FIRST Construction Council to provide it a summary of recommendations from the deliberations that were part of the 14th RAHSTA Conference.

The other reason the festival was special was the launch of my book, Tarmac to Towers - India’s Infrastructure Story, published by Westland Books. The book is available on Amazon and stores all over India. It captures the trajectory of India’s experiments with infrastructure beginning with the Golden Quadrilateral project, the PPP initiatives, and the highs and lows of investments and policies. It assesses where the infrastructure story regressed and stalled, how the current regime has spurred its pace in the past 10 years and, despite that, where the current deficits lie. Finally, the book puts forth 15 transformative ideas to accelerate India’s opportunity to becoming a developed nation. I am thankful to Amitabh Kant, Nandan Nilekani and SN Subrahmanyan for their endorsement for my book. The jury of the 22nd Construction World Global Awards launched the book at the festival and I look forward to receiving your feedback too, dear readers, as my columns in this magazine have helped me keep track of the progress of the nation’s infrastructure. You can provide your feedback ideally on Amazon, or you could tag me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

The final reason for the festival to be special was the discovery of new companies that topped the awards in all categories of the 22nd Construction World Global Awards. ITD Cementation, which grabbed the top spot as the fastest growing construction company in the large category, has been acquired by Adani Group making its debut in the EPC business. Kalpataru Projects International scored as the fastest growing company in the ultra large category, making its debut into our annual listing. Varindera Construction took the top spot in the small category while Ceigall India made its mark in the medium category.

The recently held BRICS summit has kickstarted the process of reconciliation between India and China. China already has a huge trade with India and, therefore, it makes sense to mend fences. India, too, could benefit if it allowed the Chinese to harness Indian markets, provided the Chinese set up manufacturing facilities in India. Chinese investments in manufacturing could help boost Indian exports. Some of this could be routed back to China, especially if these manufacturing facilities are built to feed global demand as in the case of construction equipment. Vietnam has already benefitted by playing ball as soon as US sanctions blocked direct Chinese exports to the US. The Chinese could be asked to rely on and build an Indian supply chain

Decentralisation would be a key driver for growth if India has to achieve its goals. States have to become more sustainable and be watchful of their debt while cities ought to build a case for raising their own funds and deploy them wisely for bettering the lives of citizens. The disparity in income currently with a majority of citizens needing basic amenities allows administrators to get away with basic provisions of necessities. But more developed cities with higher per capita income will have to execute projects to keep up with the aspirations of those who provide employment and contribute taxes. The Maharashtra elections are a case in point where the government, despite its huge indebtedness, had to showcase the Atal Setu, Coastal Road and Metro Rail Line 3, among others, to claim credit among voters. That said, corruption has not eased and ease of doing business is still a work in progress.

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous Diwali!