India goes to the polls… Why you should be paying attention

India goes to the polls between 11^th April and 19^thMay with votes to be counted on 23^rd May. This is why if you are in
Construction in Australia, you should care.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its
election manifesto this week and a few things are worth taking note of at a
global scale. Chief amongst the pre-election promises was a pledge to spend 100
trillion rupees ($1.44 trillion) on infrastructure by 2024. Infrastructure
means building and building means Iron Ore. In an environment where Brazilian
supplies from Vale are under a cloud following issues with tailings dam safety,
Australia is more than happy to step up to fill the void.

The obvious winners from this are of course the big three –
BHP, RIO and FMG, but the broader economy is equally supported by our minerals
exports. To put this demand into perspective, the Indian Government is expected
to spend ‘just’ $57Bn on road, rail and transport infrastructure in the year to
March 2020.

Of course the big caveat on all of this is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP are returned to power in May… and they follow through on the pledge… time will tell.