What does “infrastructure” mean, exactly?

Let’s break the word down into two parts:

Infra – below

Structure – Something that stands on its own (like a building, etc.)

This is a picture from a regular kirana store.

In any store near you, you can see at least 100-200 items (toffees, chocolates, milk, vegetables, fruits, noodles, flour, rice, chips, toothbrush, juice, soap, and so on).

How do these things get to the shop?

To reach the shop, these things have to be:

1. Made in a factory
2. Transported to a distributor
3. Transported to a wholesaler
4. Transported to this shop.

What does transportation need?

It needs roads, trucks, truck drivers, dhabas where truck drivers can rest and eat, motels on the highway, garages, etc.

This entire structure of roads, trucks, services, etc. that lies below what we see – the simple act of buying a toffee at a kirana store, is the infra-structure.

Why is infrastructure important?

If we live in a city where vegetables are delivered only once in 10 days, we cannot have vegetables as and when we want them. But if we live in a city where vegetables are available fresh every day, our lives are much easier.

Likewise, if school is five minutes away, we can sleep longer, come home and get more time for rest and leisure etc. But if the school is 2 kms away and goes through an area where we are bullied, we do not even want to continue education.

Infrastructure, therefore, defines the life that we live.

What all comes under infrastructure?

For industry, infra would mean:

A. Roads

B. Effective communication networks

C. Access to information

D. Quick government clearances

For education, infra means:

A. Schools

B. Teachers

C. Facilities and teaching aids available

D. Access to new books and new information

E. School supplies reaching regularly

F. Roads to the school and their all-weather use

As you can guess, every sector has its own infrastructure.

Usually, structures like transport and communication help many sectors and are considered core infrastructure of a country.

The money that is spent to build these roads, networks, etc. is called capital investment.