Project management and its role in infrastructure development -An Indian perspective

India occupied 60^th position for the year 2013–14 in the global competitiveness report prepared by taking a sample of 148 economies in the world and in the infrastructure segment it has got 85^th rank. Global competitiveness report is prepared considering 12 important pillars from the sample economies. The 12 pillars are institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training; goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation. India is lagging much behind china in the global competitiveness ranking. For a developing country like India with a huge population it is the need of the hour to improve its overall ranking as well as the ranking in the infrastructure segment. Infrastructure development in any country leads to overall development of the country viz increase in the productivity or GDP of the economy, increases the employment opportunities in the economy, increases the standard of living of the people in the country. Also the central government is planning to fill the infrastructure deficit by allocating more funds in this sector and encouraging public-private partnerships from the 12^th five year plan onwards. In this scenario, the author made an attempt to focus on the importance of project management and project managers in the development of infrastructure in the economy.