Watching the cricket matches between India and England, I was struck by the tag line of an advertisement by a leading cement company. It read, “As India Builds, India Grows”. Absolutely correct. We must build — and we must know how to build — public goods such as roads, bridges, railways, airports, buildings for schools, colleges, hospitals and offices, etc. for growth.

Jawaharlal Nehru was a great builder. The criticism of Nehru-haters is not worth a tuppence. In 1947, the population was 340 million, and growing, and the literacy rate just 12 per cent. Under Nehru’s 17-year stewardship, he built schools and colleges. He was the main driver of important institutions and projects like IITs, IIMs, steel plants, IOC, ONGC, NLC, HAL, BHEL, ISRO, Bhakra Nangal, Hirakud, Damodar Valley and countless others. The time was the nascent years post-Independence and the context was a country sparse on education, technology and skills. What Nehru built survives to this day because although India was short on many things it was abundant in people with integrity, native intelligence and dedication.

In the second century CE, Karikaalan, the Chola king, built the Kallanai (the Grand Anicut) on the river Kaveri. It is one of the oldest irrigation dams in the world, is built from unhewn interlocking stones without any binding material like mortar, and is in use today........

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