This visit to India must not be reduced to another exercise in exposure without execution.
Thirteen years after my first trip to New Delhi, returning now feels less like a journey and more like a reckoning. In 2013, I arrived as a reporter on a two-week training programme for African journalists at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), eager to learn and observe. In 2026, I return as an editor, and part of a media and editors’ familiarisation visit, no longer counting lessons but outcomes.
What confronts me immediately is not rhetoric, but evidence.
India has not merely improved infrastructure since my first visit; it has institutionalised delivery. Roads, airports, cultural spaces and logistics hubs now operate as components of a coordinated national system.
The transformation is visible, measurable and difficult to ignore.
Cold Weather, Working Systems
Delhi is colder, literally but it is also unmistakably transformed. January’s harsh winter brought dense fog and biting temperatures, yet movement through the city is seamless. From the airport to the city centre, systems respond predictably. Roads are smooth, directions are clearly marked, exits and lane changes are well signposted, and drivers are rarely left guessing where to turn.
Traffic can be heavy and at times chaotic, yet it keeps moving, guided by an almost constant, unmistakable chorus of honking.
Roads that Respect Time and Discipline
The journey from Delhi to Agra offers a quiet but powerful lesson. This is what was too glaring to ignore, at least for those of us from Ghana: from departure to arrival, there was not a single pothole. Traffic flowed smoothly. There were no chaotic diversions, no informal road repairs, no competing lanes fighting for space.
Equally telling were the rest stops along the route, with functioning restrooms designed to serve travellers and tourists. These are not cosmetic additions. They reflect planning that recognises infrastructure as a service, not merely concrete poured for political mileage.
For Ghana, where poor road quality, congestion and weak maintenance routinely erode productivity, the contrast is stark. Infrastructure in India is built to last, and more importantly, to work.
Culture as Infrastructure, Not Ornament
In Mumbai, the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) demonstrates another dimension of India’s development thinking. Conceived as a multi-disciplinary space for the arts, the Centre is not an afterthought or vanity project. It is infrastructure — cultural, economic and institutional.
Designed to preserve and promote India’s heritage while hosting world-class performances and exhibitions, the NMACC reflects an understanding that culture can be industrialised without being commodified, and that creative spaces can anchor tourism, jobs and global relevance.
This is a level of intentionality Ghana continues to struggle with, despite its rich cultural capital. Can Ghana learn any lessons from India?
Building Platforms for Global Business
Nearby, the Jio World Convention Centre reinforces the same logic. Spanning more than 103,000 square metres in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, it is India’s foremost venue for exhibitions, conventions and large-scale events.
Its flexible, technology-enabled spaces can simultaneously host physical, virtual and hybrid events, positioning India not just as a participant in global commerce, but as a convenor.
During the visit, we experienced at the Convention Centre what is said to be the world’s largest passenger lift, capable of carrying up to 200 people at a time.
For a country seeking to attract international conferences, trade fairs and investment forums, the message is clear: serious business requires serious platforms.
Airports as Economic Strategy
Perhaps nowhere is India’s execution more evident than in aviation infrastructure. Policy reforms such as the UDAAN scheme have already connected 90 airports across the country, including water aerodromes and heliports, expanding regional connectivity at scale.
Against this backdrop, two landmark projects stand out: the Noida International Airport in Jewar and the Navi Mumbai International Airport. Both are designed to relieve pressure on India’s busiest hubs while positioning the country as a global aviation gateway.
Planning, Not Luck
None of this is accidental.
India’s infrastructure push has been anchored by deliberate policy coordination, particularly under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, which integrates planning across transport, ports, power and logistics. Ministerial silos have been collapsed. Projects are designed end-to-end. Delays are reduced. Costs are controlled.
Infrastructure spending reached about US$120 billion in 2023–24, supported by private capital and disciplined execution. For the world’s fourth-largest economy, infrastructure is treated as economic architecture, not political theatre.
Resilience is Non-Negotiable
During the visit, our engagements with the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) further deepened the lesson. Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, CDRI rests on a simple truth: infrastructure must endure shocks.
For Ghana, this conversation is uncomfortable. Flooding, market fires and building collapses are not acts of fate. They are symptoms of weak enforcement, poor maintenance and indiscipline. In our part of the world, infrastructure fails not because it is built, but because it is neglected.
India’s experience shows that resilience is institutional, not aspirational.
Institutions that Outlive Politics
Across our engagements with institutions such as the National Payments Corporation of India, the India EXIM Bank, the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, one theme recurred: systems outlive governments.
India’s digital payments revolution, globally competitive ports and deep capital markets were not achieved through slogans. They were built through regulatory clarity, institutional continuity and patience.
This is where admiration turns into confrontation.
It is important to state that this reflection is not intended to talk down Ghana, but to challenge a familiar comfort with the status quo and provoke the urgency required for real development to truly take root.
Exposure Without Execution
Ghanaian officials have visited countries like India repeatedly. They have seen the metros, the ports, the airports and the payment systems. Yet back home, too little changes.
Over time, many study tours have slipped into comfortable routines, rich in exposure, but often short on follow-through. Observations are documented, reports submitted, and the initial urgency gradually thins out. Too often, familiarisation ends at insight, when it should be the starting point for execution, reform and sustained institutional change.
It is instructive to note that development does not fail for lack of ideas. It fails when lessons are seen repeatedly and ignored.
Thirteen years on, India offers a mirror. It reflects not only what is possible, but what inaction costs. I decided right from India that this visit must be different because development failure is never silent.
What Such Foreign Visits Should Produce
If this return to India is to matter beyond observation, it must translate into action.
I’m of the view that future familiarisation visits should be structured around outcomes, with clear expectations on what changes when officials return home.
Exposure alone is insufficient; learning must be converted into reforms with timelines, institutional ownership and political backing.
More importantly, lessons must be embedded within institutions, not individuals. India’s progress is sustained because systems are designed to outlive elections and officeholders. Ghana’s recurring challenge is not a shortage of ideas, but the absence of frameworks that lock good practice into law, regulation and enforcement.
Infrastructure, too, must be redefined. Roads, airports, ports and cultural assets should be treated as economic architecture. They should be planned as connected systems that drive productivity and trade, rather than isolated projects shaped by political cycles.
Maintenance and resilience must also move to the centre of policy. India’s experience shows that discipline, standards and enforcement are what protect infrastructure over time. Ghana’s recurring losses from flooding, fires and collapses are governance failures, not unavoidable misfortune.
Ultimately, the lesson from India is not about copying models wholesale, but about adapting them deliberately. Development does not advance through admiration abroad, but through execution at home.
Until that shift occurs, visits like this will continue to highlight what is possible while reminding us of the cost of hesitation.
