India to see one of the largest infra programmes of 21st century: KPMG

India is likely to see the implementation of one of the largest infrastructure programmes in the 21st century amongst large economies and creating fiscal sources of capital would be key to this initiative, according to a KPMG report.

The report titled 'KPMG 2024 Infrastructure and Transport CEO Outlook' further said a survey of 120 sector leaders from across the world found that CEOs in the infrastructure and transportation sector anticipate business growth over the next three years, in terms of earnings and headcount.

It revealed that globally 57 per cent of sector CEOs say stakeholder expectations pertaining to ESG are changing faster than they can adapt their strategy.

More than half of CEOs believe that a global failure on climate-change adaptation will have a real short-to-medium term impact on their growth, it added.

With confidence and trust in governments declining around the world, the report said 62 per cent of respondents believe the public is looking to businesses to fill the void on societal challenges. Seventy-one per cent also state that they are willing to divest a profitable part of the business if it was damaging their organization's reputation, it said.

Manish Aggarwal, partner, co-head deal advisory, and head Infrastructure, Disinvestments, and Special Situations Group, KPMG in India said that the race to embrace emerging technologies, such as Gen AI, has risen up the agenda for CEOs across the infra and transport sector.

The 10th edition of the KPMG CEO Outlook, conducted with 1,325 CEOs between July 25- 29 2024, provides unique insight into the mindset, strategies and planning tactics of CEOs.

All respondents have annual revenues of over USD 500 million and a third of the total companies surveyed have more than USD 10 billion in annual revenue. The survey included CEOs from 11 key markets --Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and USA and 11 key industry sectors.