Hari Sankaran: Infrastructure

With his knowledge and foresight on the economic scenario of the country, Mr Hari Sankaran has helped steer IL&FS in executing a series of critical initiatives in infrastructure development and implementation space. His primary interest areas include fostering relationship between communities, infrastructure development and economic growth. Under him, IL&FS has pioneered the concept of Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangements in infrastructure in India and has expanded its footprint from telecom, power and roads to airports, ports, water and sanitation, environment, urban infrastructure and education. On the social front too, Mr Sankaran is a committed player with a strong belief in the universalisation of education and realising the 3Ls—Learning for Life; Learning for Livelihood; and Lifelong Learning. He evolved a cluster-based and multi-stakeholder approach for development of employment intensive sectors like textiles, leather and food processing to address critical needs like infrastructure, finance, market linkages and skill development. The cluster development initiative has benefited 50,000 rural youth below poverty line with a vision to train and place one million youth over next five years to supplement poverty alleviation efforts of the government.