The economic infrastructure includes physical resources, irrigation, transportation, energy, communication, banking, technological know-how etc. of a country. The British rulers developed roads, railways, airports, water transport and post-telegraph etc. resources. Main objective of the British government behind starting of railways was not the favour of India, but to make it easier to transport the raw materials from various parts of the country to the nearest railway stations or ports so that the Indian raw material could be easily sent to England from there and the items manufactured in England could be sent into the Indian markets. But the roads in rural regions were not developed, due to which the lives of rural people used to become miserable in times of natural disasters such as famine.
The starting of railways was done by the British Government in 1850. Although, this is considered as a significant contribution of the Britishers to the Indian economy, yet a huge amount of land revenue was raised from the farmers for its development, and as a result, farmers were attacked by the loan sharks and they were badly exploited. There were two benefits of development of Railways Indian Economy-First, It made easier for the people to move from one part of the country to another and travel long distances. And secondly, it encouraged the commercialization of agriculture.
Water transport was also developed along with railways and roadways, but these efforts did not prove to be reasonably beneficial. Post and telegraph services were also developed. Before the First World War, the pace of development of banking sector in India was very slow. Till 1870, there were only 2 joint stock banks in India which had increased to 9 in number by the beginning of the 20th century, but several bankers became bankrupt due to the banking crisis of 1913. On 1st April 1935, the Reserve Bank of India was established under the RBI Act, 1934.
