Q.Distinguish between the economic infrastructure and the social infrastructure of Maharashtra, giving examples of each, and explain why extending them to backward regions matters.

Infrastructure comes in two kinds — the facilities that support production and those that build people — and both are unevenly spread across the state.

Economic infrastructure. These are the facilities that directly support production and trade. In Maharashtra they include:

• transport — an extensive road network (Mumbai–Pune Expressway, the Samruddhi Mahamarg corridor), dense railways and major airports;
• ports — Mumbai and JNPT/Nhava Sheva, among India's busiest;
• power — a large generation and distribution system;
• irrigation and water supply; and
• banking and financial infrastructure, in which the state (led by Mumbai) is the national leader.

Social infrastructure. These are the services that build human capital:

• education — schools, colleges and universities, including premier institutions in Mumbai and Pune; and
• health — hospitals and public-health services.

The distinction. Economic infrastructure raises the productivity of firms and farms directly; social infrastructure raises the quality of people (their education, skills and health), which then raises productivity indirectly — but both are essential and reinforce each other. …

Mixing up the two categories (placing education under economic, or ports under social); giving the distinction without examples; not link …