Q.Explain the two categories into which infrastructure is divided. How are both interdependent?

Infrastructure is commonly split into economic and social categories, and neither can do its job well without the other.

Economists commonly divide infrastructure into two categories:

1. Economic infrastructure — the infrastructure directly linked to production, made up of energy, transportation and communication. It raises the productivity of the factors of production.
2. Social infrastructure — the infrastructure linked to the well-being of people, made up of education, health and housing. It improves the quality of life and builds up human capital.

How they are interdependent: the two categories support each other and cannot work in isolation. Social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals cannot function without economic infrastructure — they need electricity, roads and communications to be built and run. Conversely, economic activity depends on social infrastructure, because industries and services need a healthy and educated workforce to be productive. Good roads carry patients to hospitals and children to schools; a healthy, skilled population runs the power plants, factories and transport systems. Thus economic and social infrastructure reinforce each other, and balanced development requires both.