Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India, speaking at the CII Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Summit 2026, in Chennai.
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Volatility, not scarcity, is the new enemy of economic activity, CEA Anantha Nageswaran said here on Monday, pointing out to how a State like Tamil Nadu has seen both floods and draught in the same year.Highlighting the critical role water plays in our economies -for both agriculture and manufacturing sectors- the CEA indicated a need to revisit the policy governing the resource. “We price water at zero, so we treat it as limitless, so we waste it and we underbill for it.And then we are shocked when it runs out,” he said. “It is a policy choice and it can be chosen differently,” he adds.The Chief Economic Advisor was speaking at CII’s Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Summit held in Chennai.“Free is the most expensive word in public policy,” he said. “Infrastructure built on the promise of free or below cost service cannot service patient capital. Someone always will end up paying. Free or underpriced water is economically unsustainable,” he added.He suggested that India must lay down the foundations now through investments in infrastructure and institution-building to achieve its goals of the future. This has to be done amidst a global environment that has fundamentally changed, he said.International orderThe CEA argued that the rules-based international order is weakening, geopolitics is increasingly shaping trade and finance, supply chains are being weaponised, climate risks are intensifying, and AI could erode the labour-cost advantage that helped previous Asian growth stories.
