One for the roads

At the Obama visit-related Indo-US CEOs’ forum on Monday, a speaker was late for the session on infrastructure. This was, ironically, because he was delayed by traffic restrictions that were in force for the duration of the US president’s visit, an exigency that Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath was quick to exploit when he rose to speak. Under fire from the Planning Commission on the manner in which road projects are being awarded, Nath told the session that the speaker’s delay highlighted the urgent need for road construction — though he did quickly joke, “For once, I am not responsible for the problem.”