MUMBAI , Ramesh Kumar's daughter couldn't study because there was no electricity. The power cut lasted 8 hours. She had exams the next day. She failed. This is not development. This is failure.
India has 12-hour power cuts in rural areas. Even in cities, power cuts are common. We have the world's third-largest electricity generation capacity, but we can't provide 24/7 power to our people. This is not infrastructure. This is collapse.
The roads are worse. Potholes kill 3,000 people every year. That's more than terrorism. That's more than many diseases. But we don't fix them. We don't maintain them. We just let them kill.
The internet is slow. India ranks 18th in the world in internet speed. Even Bangladesh is faster. Even Pakistan is faster. But we celebrate 'Digital India.' We celebrate having the most internet users while ignoring that we have the slowest internet.
The railways are overcrowded. The airports are chaotic. The ports are inefficient. The water supply is unreliable. The sewage system is broken. This is not infrastructure. This is everything falling apart.
But here's what they don't tell you: the system is designed to fail. It's designed to extract money through contracts, not to build quality infrastructure. It's designed to make politicians rich, not to make people's lives better.
The solution is not in announcing more projects or laying more foundation stones. It's in completing projects. It's in maintaining infrastructure. It's in ensuring quality, not just quantity.
But until that happens, people will keep suffering. Power cuts will keep happening. Potholes will keep killing. Internet will keep being slow. And infrastructure will remain a joke.