The government’s PRAGATI platform has transformed the delivery of the country’s infrastructure projects, a report by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and the Gates Foundation has said.
Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI) has driven accountability at the most senior level, and supported unprecedented federal and regional collaboration, accelerating 340 projects worth $205 billion across the country and cutting through decades of delays, the study noted.
The report, From Gridlock to Growth: How Leadership Enables India’s PRAGATI Ecosystem to Power Progress, was released on Monday at the Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru.
The study examined eight out of 340 PRAGATI projects, including key rail initiatives such as the Bogibeel Bridge in Assam, the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link, the Bangalore Metro in Karnataka, and the Haridaspur-Paradeep Rail Connection in Odisha. Notable road projects included the Dahisar-Surat section of National Highway 8 and the Varanasi-Aurangabad section of National Highway 2. Additionally, it assessed the North Karanpura Thermal Power Plant in Jharkhand and Navi Mumbai Airport in Maharashtra.
“PRAGATI represents an evolution in how India manages complex infrastructure projects,” said Soumitra Dutta, dean of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, who authored the report. He attributed the platform’s effectiveness to high-level leadership, digital technology, and cooperation across government tiers.
“When India is looking at the Viksit Bharat 2047 initiative…a combination of digital governance, complemented by direct leadership involvement, like PRAGATI, is key,” he said.
Combining digital data management, video conferencing, and geo-spatial technology, PRAGATI was launched in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to enable collaboration by bringing together central and state officials to fast-track infrastructure projects under the direct oversight of the PM.
According to the report, before PRAGATI, delays in delivery of projects ranged from three to 20 years, but the platform has significantly reduced these through monthly video conferences chaired by PM Modi, along with digital dashboards and drone monitoring. For instance, the Bogibeel Bridge, delayed for over a decade, was completed in just three years after PRAGATI’s intervention.
Dutta highlighted the importance of direct leadership involvement, stating, “The direct intervention of the country’s top leadership, in this case, the Prime Minister, made a significant impact. The fact that a project was selected for review under PRAGATI, galvanised people and resources. The review process aligned stakeholders, and when the top leader is directly involved, those involved rise above political and bureaucratic delays.”
Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank, noted the platform’s scale. “The challenge however is to institutionalise the project so that it remains beyond the term of the current regime,” he said.
Beyond infrastructure, according to the report, PRAGATI has accelerated social initiatives, such as the Jal Jeevan Mission, which saw a 20% increase in tap water connections in water-scarce regions. Household access to running water rose from 17% in 2019 to 79% in 2024.
PRAGATI functions within a broader digital governance framework, including PM Gati Shakti for infrastructure planning, PARIVESH for environmental clearances, and the Project Monitoring Group portal. These tools have dramatically reduced approval times for environmental clearances from 600 days to just 70-75 days, the report said.
SN Subrahmanyan, chairman and managing director of Larsen & Toubro, credited PRAGATI with instilling a cultural shift in bureaucracy. “Feeling the pressure of the highest office, since in most cases it was the Prime Minister seeking answering from the bureaucrats, projects were moving quickly. The direct communication also led to Centre and States operating fluidly,” he said.
The report concluded that PRAGATI offers a model for other developing nations. “One of the most significant lessons…is the critical role of decisive leadership…. adopting the actionable insights of this template can enable countries to serve their constituents more effectively,” it noted.