Public Private Partnership and Social Infrastructure

Economic growth in a country largely depends on the standards of its social infrastructure. Education and healthcare are twin most important areas of social infrastructure. It also covers care of the elderly people a good objective of which can be met through social security measures. This apart, social infrastructure also includes women empowerment which can be largely achieved through their education. There are over 2.5 lakh panchayats or rural government bodies in the country and they hold the key for social infrastructure development in rural areas where the challenge is formidable. Apart from the initiative of the government and its various agencies, NGOs and corporates are other social entities that can make valuable contribution in revamping social infrastructure development. In this paper, it is attempted to review a set of public private partnership models relevant for infrastructure development and review problems and issues in different areas of social infrastructure including education, healthcare, women empowerment, care of the elderly, etc, with the help of select case studies based on different public private partnership models and information and communication technologies.