Treat water as infrastructure that must be built, paid for: CEA
Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran argued that water should be treated as paid infrastructure rather than a free resource to prevent waste. He also suggested that restrictive floor space index policies contribute to urban land scarcity and environmental degradation.
Why it matters
It reflects a shift in economic policy thinking regarding urban planning and resource management in India's rapidly growing cities.
Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India V. Anantha Nageswaran on Monday said water should be treated as infrastructure that “must be planned, built, and paid for”. He called for a policy that did not price water at zero and treat it as limitless. Mr. Nageswaran said the floor space index (FSI) was far below what other cities around the world allowed.
Addressing the special plenary session of CII Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Summit 2026 in Chennai, Mr. Nageswaran said: “The answer is to treat water the way we have finally learnt to treat roads and power: as infrastructure that must be planned, built, and paid for. We need a water buffer storage so that a good monsoon carries us through a bad one.”
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