Brookings India hosted its inaugural session of its Development Seminars @ Brookings India with the paper “Transporting India to the 2030s” by Rakesh Mohan. The talk focused on India’s transport needs over the next couple of decades, and what we need to do to satisfy them. Rakesh Mohan is a Distinguished Fellow at Brookings India and former Executive Director for India to the IMF. Key Findings of the Paper • India’s transport growth trends suggest that share of railways in freight traffic has fallen from 90% in 1951 to 30% in 2010, annual deaths on roads have increased by 350% and domestic air passengers have gone up by 800% between 1991 and 2011. • Though there has been road capacity improvement with the Golden Quadrilateral, East-West and North-South highways and transformations in civil aviation, more work is needed to create efficient port structures, reliable urban transport and large capacity railways. • Achieving the target of 7% growth in the 12th Five Year Plan, followed by 9% till 2032 requires a seven-fold increase in transport investment from the 11th Plan to the 15th Plan. • Urgent action is required to ensure that India’s transport infrastructure can service the increasing needs for the movement of bulk energy commodities for the envisaged growth rates. Click here to download the Policy Brief: “Transporting India to the 2030s” Presentation – Transporting India to the 2030s Speaker Profile Prior to joining Brookings India, Rakesh Mohan was Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C., representing India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Till early 2014, he was also Chairman, National Transport Development Policy Committee, Government of India, in the rank of a Minister of State. Previously, Dr Mohan has held the positions of Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India; Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; and several key positions in Government of India including Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, in 2001-02. Dr. Mohan has researched extensively in the areas of economic reforms and liberalisation, industrial economics, urban economics, infrastructure studies, economic regulation, monetary policy and the financial sector. He is the author of three books on urban economics and urban development, co-author of one and editor of another on Indian economic policy reforms, and author of two books on monetary policy and central banking and of numerous articles. Dr. Mohan is incidentally shortlisted for the position of next RBI Governor. Development Seminar Series Photographs

About Development Seminars Series @ Brookings India The Development Seminars Series @ Brookings India is a platform for global scholars to present their work to a curated audience of senior government officials, politicians, journalists, academics and policy enthusiasts. The format of the seminars includes a senior researcher as a lead presenter and a government/industry expert to discuss the results and relevance within the Indian context. The fundamental focus of the seminar series is to draw research-based insights to shape and influence policy dialogues in India, through purposeful and pointed discussions. Other Development Seminars

• The Real Effects of Unconventional Monetary Policy
• Immigration and its Discontents
• America’s Economic Anxiety
• Using Technology to Strengthen Democracy
• The Online Education Revolution and India
• Environmental Challenges in India
• Corporate social responsibility in India: Law, implementation and evidence
• Pathways to Reducing Poverty and Sharing Prosperity in India
• Launch of paper ‘Building Smart Cities in India’
• Dr D. Subbarao on leading the RBI through 5 turbulent years
• Disguised Corruption: Evidence from Consumer Credit in China