Srinagar, Jan. 24 -- India's recent progress in infrastructure development is often described through numbers- kilometres of highways built, airports operationalised, or capital expenditure expanded. These indicators are important and impressive, but they only partially explain the transformation underway. Equally consequential has been a change in how large public projects are governed, coordinated and executed. Over the past decade, this shift has altered outcomes across sectors, particularly for projects long constrained by administrative fragmentation and delayed decisionmaking.

When the present government assumed office in 2014, the infrastructure sector was marked by significant stress. Projects worth nearly Rs.8.8 lakh crore-about...