Inclusive Growth
Vision and Strategy
After a lackluster performance in the Ninth Plan period (1997–98
to 2001– 02), when gross domestic product (GDP) grew at only 5.5% per annum,
the economy accelerated in the Tenth Plan period (2002–03 to 2006–07) to record
an average growth of 7.7%, the highest in any Plan period so far.
It can be argued that there is an element of cyclicality in the
high growth observed in the past four years since these were also years of a
global upswing. However, India’s growth performance goes beyond mere
cyclicality. Savings and investment rates have increased significantly. The industrial
sector has responded well to economic reforms and has shown that it is capable
of competing in the global economy.
These positive factors notwithstanding, a major weakness in the
economy is that the growth is not perceived as being sufficiently inclusive for
many groups, especially Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and minorities.
Gender inequality also remains a pervasive problem and some of the structural
changes taking place have an adverse effect on women. The lack of inclusiveness
is borne out by data on several dimensions of performance.
The percentage of the population below the official poverty line
has come down from 36% in 1993–94 to 28% in 2004–05. However, not only is this
still high, the rate of decline in poverty has not accelerated along with the
growth in GDP, and the incidence of poverty among certain marginalized groups,
for example the STs, has hardly declined at all. Because population has also
grown, the absolute number of poor people has declined only marginally from 320
million in 1993–94 to 302 million in 2004–05. This performance is all the more
disappointing since the poverty line on which the estimate of the poor is based
is the same as it was in 1973–74 when per capita incomes were much lower. Other
indicators of deprivation suggest that the proportion of the population
deprived of a minimum level of living is much higher. For example, National
Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) shows that almost 46% of the children in the 0
to 3 years’ age group suffered from malnutrition in 2005–06, and what is even more
disturbing is that the estimate shows almost no decline from the level of 47%
reported in 1998 by NFHS-2.
Indicators of human development such as literacy and education,
and maternal and infant mortality rates, show steady improvement, but they also
suggest that the progress is slow and we continue to lag behind several other Asian
countries. While the literacy rate has gone up from
18.3% in 1951 to 64.8% in 2001, the number of illiterate persons
still exceeds 304 million, making India the country with the highest number of
illiterate persons in the world. Life expectancy at birth has increased from approximately
32 years for both males and females in
1951 to 63.9 years for males and 66.9 years for females in 2001–06.
Yet this is well below the life expectancy of around 80 years in industrialized
countries and 72 years in China. India also has an adverse sex ratio with only 933
women per 1000 men. More disturbing, the child sex
ratio (ages 0–6) has declined sharply from 962 in 1981 to 927 in
2001. India’s maternal and infant mortality rates are much higher than those of
countries in East Asia, showing poor access to essential health care services.
The composition of growth in recent years has also presented some
problems. Agriculture has grown very slowly from the Ninth Plan onwards and
this has widened the rural–urban divide and also contributed to the severe distress
in rural areas in some regions. Although there is an upturn in agricultural
growth after 2004, it is too early to be complacent. Total employment in the
economy has improved in recent years, but the labour force has grown even
faster, leading to an increase in the unemployment rate. Permanent employment
in the organized sector has decreased, although organized sector firms may be increasing
their informal employment. Also, economic growth across regions has not been
balanced, with some of the most backward areas yet to experience any significant
growth. The delivery of essential social services at the grass roots level is
also poor and this is a major causative factor in unequal development. Much
higher
levels of human development can be achieved even with the given
structure of the economy, if only the delivery system is improved.
We are still far from redeeming the
pledge which Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru made on the eve of Independence: ‘[…] for
ending of poverty, ignorance, disease and inequality of opportunity’. The
Eleventh Plan provides an opportunity to act decisively to
consolidate the gains that have been made in the Tenth Plan and also to correct
the deficiencies that have been observed.
VISION FOR THE ELEVENTH PLAN
The central vision of the Eleventh Plan is to build on our
strengths to trigger a development process which ensures broad-based
improvement in the quality of life of the people, especially the poor, SCs/STs,
other backward castes (OBCs), minorities and women. The National Development
Council (NDC), in approving the Approach to the Eleventh Plan, endorsed a
target of 9% GDP growth for the country as a whole. If this is achieved, it
would mean that per capita GDP would grow at about 7.6% per year to double in
less than ten years. However the target is not just faster growth but also
inclusive growth, that is, a growth process which yields broad-based benefits
and ensures equality of opportunity for all.
This broad vision of the Eleventh Plan includes several inter-related
components: rapid growth that reduces poverty and creates employment
opportunities, access to essential services in health and education especially for
the poor, equality of opportunity, empowerment through education and skill
development, employment opportunities underpinned by the National Rural
Employment Guarantee, environmental sustainability, recognition of women’s
agency and good governance.
RAPID GROWTH AND POVERTY REDUCTION
The persistence of poverty on the scale at which it still exists
is not acceptable. A decisive reduction in poverty and an expansion in economic
opportunities for all sections of the population should therefore be a crucial element
of the vision for the Eleventh Plan.
Growth in the Eleventh Plan should be better balanced to rapidly
create jobs in the industrial and
services sectors. This is necessary if a significant portion of
the labour force is to shift out of agriculture, where it is currently engaged
in low productivity employment, into a non-agricultural activity that can
provide higher real incomes per head. This must be accompanied by efforts
to improve the income-earning opportunities of those who remain in
agriculture by raising land productivity.
Rapid growth in the economy at large, and especially in the
employment generating sectors such as medium and small industry and services,
needs to be supplemented by targeted livelihood support programmes aimed at increasing
productivity and incomes of the poor in several low income occupations which
will continue as important sources of employment for quite some time.
Special programmes aimed at target groups such as small and micro
enterprises, weavers, artisans, craftsmen, etc. will therefore remain important
in the Eleventh Plan period.
THE EMPLOYMENT CHALLENGE
The ability to generate an adequate number of productive
employment opportunities will be a major factor on which the inclusiveness of
growth will be judged. India is currently at a stage of ‘demographic
transition’ where population growth is slowing down but the population of young
people entering the labour force continues to expand. This means that a working
person will have fewer dependents, children or parents. The dependency ratio
(ratio of dependent to working age population) declined from 0.8 in 1991 to 0.73
in 2001 and is expected to decline further to 0.59 by 2011. If the workforce is
gainfully employed, a lower dependency ratio means a higher rate of savings
which, in turn, can raise the growth rate. This young demographic profile
places
India favourably in terms of manpower availability and could be a
major advantage in an environment where investment is expanding in India and
the industrial world is ageing.
It is, however, essential to produce a growth process in which
employment would be available not only for new entrants to the labour force but
also in the non-agricultural sector for workers leaving agriculture. Beside
population growth and other factors, more urban women have joined the
workforce, the unemployment rate has increased over these years.
Rapid growth focused on labour-intensive industries and small and
middle enterprises will create employment opportunities in the manufacturing
and services sectors. The ability to create jobs will be enhanced by greater
labour flexibility which may require some changes in labour laws.
ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL SERVICES
A person is poor because her endowments of capital, land, labour
and skills are meagre, and also because her access to public goods and services
and natural resources is limited. Often, a poor person is trapped in the prison
of illiteracy. Disease and ill-health prevent her from getting
the most out of the one asset she has, her labour.
Access to basic facilities such as health, education, clean
drinking water, etc. impacts directly on welfare, in the longer run, it
determines economic opportunities for the future. Without access to these
services one cannot be considered to have equality of opportunity.
Since access to these services for the majority of the population
depends not only upon their income levels but upon the delivery of these
services through publicly funded systems, the Eleventh Plan’s vision of poverty
reduction includes major expansion in the supply of these services. The
resources needed to create the infrastructure necessary for delivering these
services to the poor are large. Fortunately, the rapid growth being targeted
for the Eleventh Plan will facilitate the ability to undertake these programmes,
both by way of higher tax revenues resulting from higher growth and a larger
borrowing capability even while adhering to fiscal deficit targets expressed as
a percentage of GDP.
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
The vision of inclusiveness must go beyond the traditional
objective of poverty alleviation to encompass equality of opportunity, as well
as economic and social mobility for all sections of society, with affirmative
action for SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities and women.
This outcome can only be ensured if there is a degree of
empowerment that creates a true feeling of participation so necessary in a
democratic polity. Empowerment of disadvantaged and hitherto marginalized
groups is therefore an essential part of any vision of inclusive growth. India’s
democratic polity, with the establishment of the third layer of democracy at
the Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) level, provides opportunities for
empowerment and participation of all groups with reservations for SCs, STs, and
women. These institutions should be made more effective through greater
delegation of power and responsibility to the local level.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Clear commitment to pursue a development process which is
environmentally sustainable. The Eleventh Plan must be based on a strategy that
not only preserves and maintains natural resources, but also provides equitable
access to those who do not have such access at present. Unless environment
protection is brought to the centre stage of policy formulation, what is
perceived as development may actually lead to a deteriorating quality of life.
GENDER EQUITY
For the first time in the history of Indian planning there is an
attempt to move beyond empowerment and recognize
women as agents of sustained socio-economic growth and change. The Eleventh
Five Year Plan acknowledges women’s agencies and tries to ensure that their
needs, rights and contribution are reflected in every section of the Plan
document. Gender is, therefore, a cross cutting theme; it is not confined to a
single chapter on Women and Children. The vision is to develop an integrated
approach.
While endeavoring to guarantee the rights and entitlements of all
women, the Eleventh Plan recognizes that women are not a homogenous category.
GOVERNANCE
Improvement in governance.
Experience suggests that many of these initiatives have floundered
because of poor design,
insufficient accountability and also corruption at various levels.
Increasingly, there is demand for effective implementation without which
expanded government intervention will be infructuous.
The best possible way of achieving this objective may be by
involving communities in both the design and implementation of such programmes,
although such involvement may vary from sector to sector. Experience shows that
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) can work with PRIs to improve the effectiveness
of these programmes.
It is especially important to improve evaluation of the
effectiveness of how government programmes work and to inject a commitment to
change their designs in the light of the experience gained. Evaluation must be
based on proper benchmarks and be scientifically designed to generate
evidence-based assessment of different aspects of programme design.
Accountability and transparency are critical elements of good
governance. The Right to Information Act (RTI) enacted in 2005 empowers people
to get information and constitutes a big step towards transparency and accountability.
THE
ROLE OF THE STATES
A notable feature of
the Tenth Plan was the increase in the share of outlays for Centrally Sponsored
Schemes (CSS) in the Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) for the Central Plan. This
was done for two reasons; first, the Centre’s own investment in industry
was almost entirely
funded by the Internal and Extra-Budgetary Resources (IEBR) of
Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs); and, second, the enlarged role that
the Centre has taken for itself in providing for social infrastructure,
especially in the backward States, through programmes such as National
Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan, Bharat Nirman, etc.
Many of the major CSS are in areas where the State Governments
have traditionally borne the bulk of the expenditure. Even during the Eleventh
Plan period, the non-Plan expenditure on these sectors by the State Governments
will be considerable. The strategy for ensuring the best use of the available
resources, therefore, requires that the Central Government engage more
intensively with the States not only with regard to Plan expenditure
but also in respect of what have traditionally been non-Plan expenditures.
STRATEGY FOR THE ELEVENTH PLAN:
POLICIES FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH
Objectives of inclusiveness and sustainability. This strategy must
be based on sound macroeconomic policies which establish the macroeconomic
preconditions for rapid growth and support key drivers of this growth.
MACROECONOMIC FRAMEWORK
It envisages a continuation of the uptrend in domestic investment
and savings observed in the Tenth Plan taking domestic investment from an
estimated 35.9% of GDP in 2006–07
to an average of 36.7% of GDP in the Eleventh Plan period. The
Plan also implies a substantial
increase in the total resources for the Central and State Plans
from 9.46% of GDP in the Tenth Plan to 13.54% of GDP in the Eleventh Plan.
The macroeconomic projections involve a rise in the current
account deficit from 1.1% of GDP in 2006–07 to an average of 1.9% of GDP in the
Eleventh Plan period, based on oil prices at the average level of 2006–07. The real challenge in the persistence of high
oil prices lies in the need to pass on these prices to consumers which could
moderate growth a little in the short run.
On balance, the Plan target of 9% per year appears achievable with
some downside risks if oil prices harden further. Manufacturing is targeted to
grow at over 12% per year and this is expected to provide high-quality
employment.
AGRICULTURE
The target of doubling the rate of growth of agriculture to 4% in
the Eleventh Plan is critical for
achieving greater inclusiveness. This calls for initiatives on
several fronts.
The poor performance of agriculture in the past decade or so is
partly due to the emergence of technology fatigue in the intensely irrigated
crop production regions. This is reflected in the fact that the new varieties
released do not seem to have produced significantly higher yields per hectare.
The long-term response to this phenomenon is a comprehensive strengthening and
restructuring of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) system.
There is also a need to increase the accountability of the State
agricultural universities and to make their research more directly useful.
We must exploit the large scope for yield improvement which is
reflected in the large gap that exists in most parts of the country between the
yields that are actually being realized on the ground and yields that can be
achieved with the existing varieties using best practices in farm conditions.
This yield gap varies from 60 to 100%, depending on the crop and the region.
A new central assistance programme, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana
(RKVY) has been launched to incentivize State Governments to prepare district
level agricultural plans that take account of local conditions. The programme will
encourage effective convergence among various
Central schemes which are currently implemented in districts as
stand-alone schemes and will provide Central assistance to meet a part of the
additional cost of the agricultural plans, above existing expenditure commitments.
Adoption of best practices typically involves additional
investment. The most important area for
investment in agriculture relates to the provision of water and
its efficient use.
Private investment by farmers is also needed in land development,
pump sets and drip irrigation, agricultural machinery, etc. On-farm investments
are limited by the availability of credit to farmers which needs priority attention.
Whereas overall credit has expanded, the number of loan accounts has declined,
suggesting that small farmers are not receiving adequate credit. To correct
this, the cooperative banking system must be revived along the lines recommended
by the Vaidyanathan Committee.
Deteriorating soil health is a major constraint limiting
productivity in agriculture. The present system of fertilizer subsidy which is
based on subsidization of products rather than nutrients, contributes to the
problem because there is excessive subsidy on nitrogen compared to potassium
and phosphates, and no subsidy at all on micronutrients. The result is
excessive use of nitrogenous fertilizer which depletes the soil of other
micronutrients (sulphur, zinc, boron), reducing soil productivity over time.
Increased awareness of this problem is extremely important. It is necessary to restructure
the fertilizer subsidy to make it nutrient based and to enable production of
composite fertilizers, including micronutrients, by giving producers the
flexibility to
charge higher prices which will cover the cost of adding micronutrients.
There is also need to expand the network of soil testing laboratories in most
States and also to extend soil testing to measure micronutrients, which are typically
not covered at present.
Seed replacement is another major problem constraining crop
productivity. Seed replacement rates in most parts of the country are much
below recommended levels, partly because of lack of availability of certified seeds,
but also because farmers do not trust the quality or truthfulness of labels of
certified seeds available from public sector sources.
A National Food Security Mission has been launched in the first
year of the Eleventh Plan which aims at increasing cereal production by 18 million
tonnes and pulses production by 2 million tonnes. Nevertheless, it is unlikely
that demand for foodgrains will expand by more than 2.5% per year. The target
of 4% growth in agriculture will therefore require much faster growth in
horticulture, floriculture, dairying, poultry, and fisheries. Agricultural
strategies for each
agro-climatic zone should pay attention to the scope for
agricultural diversification along lines that are technically appropriate.
Agricultural diversification will pose special challenges in
marketing because the high-value produce of diversified agriculture is much
more perishable than foodgrains. Farmers need assured linkages to efficient markets
with transparent pricing and also modern logistics and cold chains to ensure
transportation with minimum spoilage.
There is also need for greater predictability in measures designed
for price stability. Efforts to control sudden price rise of agricultural
produce, such as bans on exports, have often been at the cost of farmers. Also,
while the Minimum Support Price (MSP) policy has not reached most farmers at
times when prices were low, inadequate procurement often leads to overreaction.
More generally, market linkages can be improved by improving rural
infrastructure, including especially, rural roads and rural electrification.
The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) has already done commendable work
in extending rural connectivity and the programme will continue into the
Eleventh Plan. The Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana
(RGGVY) also has ambitious plans to extend rural electrification
to hitherto unserved rural areas.
IRRIGATION AND WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT
The Bharat Nirman target is to more than double the pace of
addition to the area under irrigation to 2.5 million hectares per year by
2008–09. If this momentum is maintained, we should be able to add 16 million
hectares to the irrigated area during the Eleventh Plan.
A large number of projects have been under construction for a long
time as resources have been spread too thin. This has increased costs and also
delayed the creation of irrigation capacity.
The Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) was started to
incentivize States to complete projects in a time-bound manner, but progress in
the programme has not been satisfactory. States are being encouraged to change
the system of contracting to a fixed cost, timebound system. A system of
monitoring projects through remote sensing has been introduced which will help
to identify critical works needing attention
Repair, renovation and restoration of water bodies can expand irrigation capacity in a short period. States will be
assisted to take up such projects provided they agree to hand over the water
bodies to user groups after renovation so that future maintenance is
assured. 25% of the project cost is eligible for grant assistance under AIBP
and the rest could come from external
assistance.
To further reduce the gap between the potential and its
utilization, the Command Area Development Programme (CADP) was modified in the
Tenth Plan to include water management above the outlet for correcting system
deficiencies.
Groundwater, which is used
for irrigating for nearly 60% of the irrigated area, also poses serious
problems. Under the Easement Act of 1882, the ownership rights of groundwater
rest with the owner of the land. This makes groundwater a common property
resource with open access. As a result, groundwater was over exploited in
nearly 15% of the blocks in 2004, compared to 4% in
1995
Under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Central
Government can intervene where the water table falls. The Eleventh Plan will
encourage co-operative management of groundwater by the community, as it is most
likely to work. The objective would be to contain average groundwater
extraction to average water recharge.
While groundwater is being depleted in some parts of the country,
large parts of eastern India have high water tables, reflecting large
unexploited potential for expanding irrigation. This is not done for want of
electricity as using diesel pumps is expensive and inconvenient.
Groundwater can be recharged through watershed development using
check dams, contour bunding, etc.
INDUSTRY AND MINERALS
The pace of industrial growth quickened during the Tenth Plan and
manufacturing in particular showed considerable dynamism. It will be necessary
to build on this momentum during the Eleventh Plan and, indeed, impart
additional impetus to generate 10% growth in industry, and even higher growth
in manufacturing. This will not only provide the additional job opportunities
needed to absorb some of the surplus labour in the rural workforce
but also generate employment for the new entrants that are expected to join the
labour force both in rural and urban areas.
Industries face a number of impediments in the country.
Improvement of physical infrastructure must clearly come at the top of the
agenda of action for achieving rapid industrialization.
Continuous supply of good quality electrical power from the grid
is critical for industries. Manufacturing also entails movement of large volumes
of goods in order to compete in a globalized context and manufacturers need
transport infrastructure.
Deficiencies in the road infrastructure.
Insufficient port capacity and inadequate navigation aid facilities
and cargo handling equipment lead to longer pre-berthing detention and
turnaround time for ships. These problems are compounded by the fact that large
vessels do not call on many Indian ports because of the
lack of depth of the draft and poor connectivity with the hinterland.
A skill deficit has also emerged in virtually all areas of
manufacturing as one of the major impediments to rapid industrial growth.
The perceived lack of flexibility in some of our labour laws,
which focus on job protection, remains a psychological block for entrepreneurs
against establishing new enterprises with a large workforce.
The Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) Sector accounts for the bulk
of the employment in manufacturing and has been one of the sources of strength
for manufacturing in the country.
However, the ceiling on investment in plant and machinery, together
with reservation of a large number of items for exclusive manufacture by
small-scale industries, has in the past barred these units from undertaking
efforts for upgrading technology, adopting modern manufacturing methods and
achieving economies of scale. The number of reserved items was reduced from 675
to 114 and the ceiling on investment in plant and machinery was raised
generally from Rs 3 crore to Rs 5 crore by the Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises Act, 2006.
Small-scale units are handicapped by insufficient flow of credit
despite the measures taken to stimulate priority sector lending by Scheduled
Commercial Banks and expansion of direct lending operations by the Small Industries
Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
Granting of full autonomy to CPSEs remains an unfinished agenda
before the government.
A package of fiscal and other incentives has been in place since
1997 aimed at facilitating industrial development of the States of the North
East Region (NER). During the Tenth Plan, similar schemes were notified for
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. While the
response in the NER and the valley in J&K has not been significant,
there is evidence that these incentives have stimulated industrial
investment in Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS OF
INCLUSIVE GROWTH
Good quality infrastructure is the most critical physical requirement
for attaining faster growth in a competitive world and also for ensuring
investment in backward regions. This includes all-weather roads;
round-the-clock availability of power at a stable voltage and frequency; water
for irrigation; railways that are not overcrowded, which run on time and do not
overcharge for freight; ports with low turnaround time to reduce costs of
imports and exports; airports to handle the growing traffic; air services that
provide connectivity to all parts of the country; and telecommunications and
broadband connectivity to provide the benefits of the Internet to people all
over the country.
The Eleventh Plan outlines a comprehensive programme for
development of infrastructure, especially in rural areas, and in the remote and
backward parts of the country, consistent with the requirements of inclusive growth
at 9% per year.
Public investment will still constitute 70% of the total
investment in infrastructure.
Public investment will have to give priority to meeting the
infrastructure requirements in those subsectors and areas where private
participation is unlikely to be forthcoming. These include irrigation and other
general rural infrastructure (mainly rural roads, rural electrification, and
water supply and sanitation), and also infrastructure development in the more
backward areas and the remote parts of the country.
Railways
Have much higher fuel
efficiency than trucks and cars. For movement of bulk commodities, trucks cannot
compete with the railways. With containerization, the railways can be
competitive even for movement of other goods over long distances.
The rapid rise in international trade and domestic cargo has
placed a great strain on the Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Kolkata rail tracks. The
government has, therefore, decided to build dedicated freight corridors in the
western and eastern high density routes involving construction of 7201 km of
new rail tracks. This will help to decongest the two routes for freight
movement and also increase the economic potential of the hinterland areas which
will benefit from the reduced cost of transport. It will also provide spin-off
benefits in terms of location of industrial clusters along the new corridors,
thereby attracting potential investment in a number of States.
This was hitherto a monopoly of the Container Corporation of
India, a public sector entity. In a major initiative in PPP, container movement
has been thrown open to competition and 15 private sector entities have been
licensed for running container trains on tracks owned by the Indian Railways.
The Indian Railways also proposes to take the following
steps in an effort to create world-class transport infrastructure:
• Strengthening of
infrastructure and improvement in the design of wagons to facilitate movement
of heavier freight trains.
• Redevelopment and
modernization of important railway stations through PPP.
• A paradigm shift in the
delivery of services to include quality passenger services at terminals,
introduction of modern rolling stock and improvement in sanitation.
• On the Delhi-Agra route, a
high speed train with a maximum speed of 150 km per hour has been introduced.
Similar trains will be introduced in selected city pairs.
• Reduction in accidents per
million train km; implementation of measures to reduce chances of passenger fatality
as a result of train accidents.
• Introduction of a new
accounting system in line with internationally accepted accounting principles.
This will help to identify the unit cost of different services more accurately.
Roads
Covering the national highways, based on a combination of public
investment and PPP
and completion of rural road connectivity through the PMGSY.
PMGSY is a massive programme of expanding rural road connectivity
and was begun in the Tenth Plan. This will continue into the Eleventh Plan to provide
reliable road connectivity to all habitations with 1000+ population (500+
population in hilly regions) by 2009.
An expanded National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) is
currently under way, involving a total investment of Rs 227258 crore.
Construction of 15600 km of Access Controlled Expressways.
Establishment of an Expressways Authority of India for implementation of the
Expressways Programme should be considered
by the Ministry.
The following qualitative improvements will be implemented:
• The NHAI, which is the
implementing agency for NHDP, will be restructured and strengthened.
• High priority will be accorded
to ensure integrated development of the entire road network, that is, national highways,
State highways, major district roads, other district roads and village roads.
• Higher maintenance standards
will be employed in order to reduce the frequency of reconstruction of capacity
and to preserve road assets already created.
The strategy will focus on optimum utilization of existing
capacity rather than creating new capacities.
• Conditions conducive for
private sector participation will be created in
the States.
• In order to ensure safety
along with free flow of traffic, various steps will be taken in the coming
years, including strengthening the institutional mechanism by setting up of the
National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board as an apex body.
A Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for the North
East Region (SARDP-NE)
is presently under implementation for providing road connectivity
to all the State capitals and district headquarters in the NER.
Ports
Indian ports suffer from inefficiency and congestion as reflected
in the high turnaround time of ships. New berths and better handling facilities
are needed at the existing ports and new ports also need to be developed.
The draft at some ports needs deepening to permit larger ships to
berth. Rail connectivity to move goods from the ports is also inadequate.
Airports
Growth of average of 30% per year between 2003–04 and 2006–07.
However, development of airports and related facilities has not kept pace. Four
major airports (Delhi,Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore) are being developed by
private sector entities. Modernization of Kolkata and Chennai airports and 35
non-metro and 13 other airports is underway. Some new greenfield airports will
also be constructed during the Eleventh Plan.
Telecommunications
Developing a world-class telecommunications infrastructure with an
emphasis on broadening access.Phenomenal growth in the telecom sector has also
created a digital divide in terms of mobile and land line connections and
Internet and broadband connections between urban and rural India.
Broadband connectivity plays an important role not only as a
medium but also as a means of bringing knowledge and data though networking to
the less fortunate institutions. The country should create a dynamically
configurable national multi-gigabit backbone core network.
It should be our objective to connect 5000 institutions of
education, science and technology to this core to enable collaborative research
and development nationally and internationally.
India’s prowess in software is world-renowned with an estimated
share of 65% of global off-shore information technology (IT) and 46% of global
business process outsourcing (BPO). The Indian IT and IT-enabled services
(ITES)/BPO industry stands at US$ 31.3 billion in 2006–07. The addressable
market for offshore BPO globally stands at US$ 300 billion, leaving enough
headroom for further growth.
The indirect employment generated by the sector, is approximately
three times of the direct
employment. This throws up a great challenge for human resources
(HR) development. There is an urgent need to augment the existing educational
system by introducing special IT courses and establishing finishing schools to impart
soft and other important skills.
With the weakening of the dollar against the Indian rupee, the
ITES/BPO industry has come under pressure and it needs to be nurtured.
Extending the 10A and 10B benefits for the BPO industries beyond 2009 could be
one such encouragement. Otherwise, this segment of the sector, which is a huge
employment generator, could move to other countries which are
more cost effective. The industry also needs to shift from Dollar
to Rupee denominated contracts to combat the falling dollar.
Electric Power
Rapid economic growth cannot be realized if energy is not available
at reasonable costs.
The Electricity Act, 2003 provides an excellent framework for restructuring
of the power sector, and allows full scope for competition within a reasonable
regulatory framework. However, while a good start has been made in setting up the
regulatory framework and the institutional structure
necessary for an efficient market for electricity generation and
distribution, much more remains to be done. The performance in the Tenth Plan
in adding capacity was disappointing. Against a target addition of 41110 MW, only
21080 MW were commissioned, out of which only 18000 MW were actually made fully
operational. Investment in distribution has also been inadequate.
The most important problem in the power sector is the continued
unviability of the distribution segment reflected in very high transmission and
distribution losses, including pilferage and also uneconomic tariff for some
categories of consumers.
The main thrust should be on the following:
• The position at the start of
the Eleventh Plan is better than at the start of the Tenth Plan because the
volume of generation capacity under construction or ordered in the middle of
the first year (September 2007) was 52000 MW compared with only 20500 MW at the
start of the Tenth Plan. Further orders amounting to 23600 MW could be placed
by the end of the first year of the Eleventh Plan.
• While the regulatory structure
consisting of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and
State Electricity Regulatory Commissions have been established and
have begun to operate, they have yet to stabilize and achieve credibility as
independent regulators. Many of them suffer from serious staffing problems
arising from an inability to attract the necessary technical expertise.
• Improvement in the efficiency
of the distribution system.The Accelerated Power Development and Reform
Programme (APDRP), initiated in the Tenth Plan, aimed at reducing aggregate
technical and commercial losses from over 40% in 2002–03 to 15% by the end of
the Plan. This target proved unachievable and excepting in a couple of States,
the Aggregate, Technical and Commercial (ATC) losses were reduced by only 2 to
3 percentage points and are presently estimated at about 40%.
• Rural electrification,
• An important innovation of the
Electricity Act, 2003 is the statutory provision for open access which allows generating
stations to enter the market and sell directly to high tension consumers.
• A major, new initiative for
promoting competition and attracting private investment in the power sector launched
in the last year of the Tenth Plan was the Ultra Mega Power Projects programme.
To set up nine large power projects of 4000 MW each.
Other Energy Sectors
Availability of energy at
competitive prices is as important as infrastructure. One also wants clean and
convenient cooking fuels to avoid indoor air pollution.
We are short of most energy resources. Even coal, which is our
most abundant resource, may run out in 40– 50 years. An integrated energy
policy to stimulate efficient use and allocation of fuels is, therefore,
important. A key requirement of such a policy is that relative prices of different
fuels, their transportation charges, and taxes and subsidies have to be
consistent so that they reflect true social costs. Such a pricing system should
be established in the Eleventh Plan.
COAL
The bulk of electricity generated in the country is based on coal.
The coal industry was nationalized in 1973 and Coal India Ltd dominates in
production of coal. Under the nationalization Act, only public sector units,
and designated users are permitted to mine coal for their own use. Coal must be
competitively priced. Sale of at least 20% of coal through e-auction, rail
freight rationalization, imports without duty, and pricing of coal based on its
gross calorific value will be promoted. Washing of coal to reduce its ash
content and save on transport charges will also be encouraged.
OIL AND GAS
More than 70% of our oil needs are met by imports. The New
Exploration Licensing Policy has met with some success in finding gas in the
country and in offshore areas.
The pricing policy for petroleum products will pose a major
challenge in the Eleventh Plan, given the sharp increase in international oil
prices which is yet to be passed on to the consumers. With the present domestic
petroleum prices, the extent of under recovery in the petroleum sector is
estimated at Rs 100000 crore. This situation is simply not sustainable. Also, the subsidies on kerosene and LPG, which
lead to substantial diversion, need to be reduced and also rationalized. The
scope for disbursing subsidy through a smart card system while shifting to
market prices needs to be explored.
Gas pricing is more complex as gas is not easily tradable. While
the cost of imported Liquefied Natural Gas provides a ceiling on the domestic
price of gas, the FOB price of gas less the cost of liquefaction and less the risk
premium associated with exports constitutes longterm opportunity cost for
producers.
The distribution infrastructure of pipeline networks and
associated facilities would have to be under open access regulated by
regulators. While the oil and gas regulator has been put in place, there is no
such regulator for coal.
RENEWABLES
The importance of renewable energy in the country arises from a
number of factors—it increases energy
security, it provides energy at local levels, improving energy security at
these levels and it involves little or no Green House Gas emissions.
Wind power, solar applications, biomass gasification, bio-fuels
development and other clean technologies. The distributed generation based on
wood gasification in rural areas, coupled with biogas plants.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND R&D
There is large scope for improving energy efficiency in the country.
These include energy
auditing of large energy consumers, benchmarking with more
efficient units, labelling and rating energy consuming equipment, forcing
higher efficiency standards in major energy consuming sectors such as automobiles,
and promoting energy efficient buildings. While labelling can help consumers
buy energy efficient products, changes will be made in procurement policies
so that government departments buy equipment based on life cycle
costs.
To find clean sources of energy, missions in the
following areas should be mounted:
• Clean coal technologies of
carbon capture and sequestration
• In-situ coal gasification
• Solar photo-voltaics and solar
thermal electricity
• Cellulosic extraction of
ethanol and butanol from agricultural waste and crop residues
• Improvement in the yield of
Jatropha and other oilseeds for biodiesel.
EDUCATION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Public expenditure (Centre and States) on education is only around
3.6% of GDP. The National
Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) had set a target of raising it to
6%.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. As a
result, the number of out-of school children declined from 32 to 7 million,
indicating that SSA brought an additional 25 million children into the
education system during the Tenth Plan period. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)
for elementary schools (Classes I–VIII) increased from 81.6% in 2001–02 to
94.9%
in 2004–05. However, the drop out rate has remained high. It was
as high as 48.71% at the elementary level at the end of the Tenth Plan, a
decline of only 5.94 percentage points from 2001–02.
The quality of teaching in our elementary schools is also not what
it should be. Teacher absenteeism is widespread, teachers are not adequately
trained and the quality of pedagogy is poor. It also begins the process of
universalizing secondary education.
The action proposed in the Eleventh Plan for secondary education
includes the following:
• Rapid upgradation of 15000
Upper Primary Schools to Secondary Schools, and expansion of intake capacity in
44000 existing Secondary Schools;
• Establishment of 6000 high
quality model schools at the block level to serve as benchmarks for excellence
• Provision for
laboratories/libraries and also strengthening of the existing facilities
available;
• Continuous teacher training;
• Provision for hostels and
residential schools for girls; and
•Allowing private schools to be
set up to meet the large unmet demand for quality education.
The following initiatives will be taken in the Eleventh
Plan to attain these objectives in higher education.
• Establishment of 30 new
Central universities, one in each of the 16 States which do not have a Central university
at present, and 14 other Central universities in different parts of the country.World
class standards, which will involve coverage of a wider range of subjects,
including, especially engineering and medicine.
• Establishment of eight IITs,
seven IIMs and five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research.
• Public–private participation
in setting up these universities will be carefully explored. The location of
these institutions should take advantage of the collocation of other scientific
and research institutions in certain places.
• The scope for setting up
institutions of higher education in the private sector must also be explored. Flexibility
in charging higher fees.
• At present, fees vary across
universities, but generally these have been kept very low, in many cases not
even covering 5% of the operating cost. The Centre and State Governments must
either be able to subsidize university education massively or try to mobilize a
reasonable amount from those who can afford it by way of fees that cover a
reasonable part of the running cost.
Skill Development
In an economy growing at the rate of 9% plus, skill development
poses major challenges and also opens up unprecedented doors of opportunity.
The magnitude of the skill development challenge can be estimated by the fact
that the NSS 61st Round results show that among
persons of age 15–29 years, only about 2% are reported to have
received formal vocational training and another 8% reported to have received
non-formal vocational training, indicating that very few young persons actually
enter the world of work with any kind of formal vocational training. This
proportion of trained youth is one of the lowest in the world. Our Vocational
Education and Training (VET) system needs to cover more trades. Qualitatively
it suffers from disabilities such as poor infrastructure, ill-equipped
classrooms/laboratories/ workshops, below par faculty, absence of measurement of
performance and outcomes, etc.
The urgency of skill development is underscored by the demographic
changes taking place. It is estimated that the ageing phenomenon globally will
create a skilled manpower shortage of approximately 46 million by 2020 and if
we can take effective action on skill development, we could have a skilled
manpower surplus of approximately 47 million.
Proposed to launch coordinated
action for skill development which will be a major initiative for inclusive
growth and development and will consist of an agglomeration of programmes and
appropriate structures.
It is proposed to create a ‘Virtual
Skill Development Resource Network’, which can be
accessed by trainees at 50000 Skill Development Centres, to
provide web-based learning. It is also proposed to create a ‘National Skills Inventory’ and
another database for ‘Skills Deficiency
Mapping’ for facilitating tracking of careers and placement and for
exchange of
information between employers and employment seekers.
HEALTH AND NUTRITION
Good health is both an end in itself and also contributes to
economic growth. Meeting the health
needs of the population requires a comprehensive and sustained approach.
Our health services should be affordable and of reasonable quality.
Public health spending will be raised to at least 2% of GDP during
the Eleventh Plan period.
Eleventh Plan aims to establish 60 medical colleges and 225 new
nursing and other colleges in deficit States through PPP. Incentives linking
payment to performance will also be introduced in the public health system.
The following targets have been set during the Eleventh Plan to
ensure an efficient public health delivery system under the National Rural
Health Mission (NRHM), which was launched in 2005.
• Over 5 lakh Accredited Social
Health Activists (ASHAs), one for every 1000 population in 18 Special Focus
States and in tribal pockets of all States by 2008.
• All sub-centres (nearly 1.75
lakh) functional with two Auxiliary Nurse Midwives by 2010.
• Mobile Medical Units for each
District by 2009.
• Functional Hospital
Development Committees in all CHCs, SDHs, and District Hospitals by 2009.
• Untied grants and annual
maintenance grants to every Sub-centre, PHC and CHC released regularly and utilized
for local health action by 2008.
• All District Health Action
Plans completed by 2008.
During the Eleventh Plan, special attention will be paid to
various aspects of women’s health, including maternal morbidity and mortality,
and child sex ratio. Besides encouraging institutional deliveries under NRHM, Traditional
Birth Attendants (TBAs) will be trained to upgrade them as Skilled Birth
Attendants. Reducing travel time to two hours for emergency obstetric care will
be a
key social intervention.
For reducing infant mortality, focus will be on Home Based Newborn
Care (HBNC) complemented by Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses.
Improving all district hospitals will be a key intermediate step
in the health strategy. During the
Plan period, six AIIMS-like institutions will be set up and 13
medical institutes upgraded to that level.
The urban poor, particularly
slum dwellers, a health insurance based National Urban Health Mission will be
launched.
The Eleventh Plan also focuses on developing human resources to
not just meet the needs of the health care system, but also to increase
employment opportunities and make India a hub for health tourism. This will
involve reintroducing licentiate courses in medicine, and establishing medical,
nursing, dental and paramedical colleges in the under-served areas.
Good governance, transparency and accountability in the delivery
of health nutrition and related services will be ensured through involvement of
local self governments, community and civil society groups.
High levels of malnutrition continue to influence morbidity and
mortality rates in the country.
A variety of interventions consisting of dietary diversification,
nutrient supplementation and public
health measures involving better hygiene, sanitation and deworming
will be undertaken to tackle the problem of malnutrition. The Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) scheme, the government’s main programme for
addressing the problem of malnutrition, will be universalized on a fully
decentralized on-demand basis and restructured in the Eleventh Plan as described
below.
The implementation of ICDS will be improved by giving responsibility
of execution to the community and PRIs. Besides, there will be wider coverage
of hot cooked meals and extensive promotion of infant and young child feeding
practices.
WOMEN’S AGENCY AND CHILD RIGHTS
Inclusive growth in the Eleventh Plan envisages respecting the
differential needs of all women and children and providing them with equal
access to opportunities. This can only happen when women are recognized as agents
of socio-economic growth with autonomy of decision-making and the rights of
children are respected.
The Eleventh Plan proposes a five-fold
agenda for gender equity. This includes
economic empowerment;
social empowerment;
political empowerment;
strengthening mechanisms for effective implementation of women-related
legislations; and
augmenting delivery mechanisms for mainstreaming gender.
For children, it adopts a rights framework based on the principles
of protection, well-being, development and participation. Recognizing that
women and children are not homogenous
categories, the Eleventh Plan aims to have not just general programmes, but
also special targeted interventions, catering to the differential needs of
different groups. Thus during the plan period, specific pilots for girl
children and Muslim women, will be taken up.
Maternal health services will be improved and emergency and
compulsory obstetrics care will be made available within a travel time of two
hours.
Departing from previous Plans, the Eleventh Plan views violence as a public health issue and calls for training of
medical personnel at all levels of the health care system to recognize and
report violence against women and children. The Eleventh Plan also introduces the
Integrated Child Protection scheme and the Scheme for Relief and Rehabilitation
of Victims of Sexual Assault. New and empowering bills like the Sexual
Harassment at Workplace Bill and the Compulsory Registration of Marriages Bill
are expected to become law during the Plan period.
POVERTY, LIVELIHOOD SECURITY, AND
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Accelerating agriculture development with emphasis on watershed
development in dryland areas and a special focus on small farmers will increase
employment and help reduce poverty in rural areas. The NREGP provides income
support for those in need of employment while also helping to create assets
that will increase land productivity. The Bharat Nirman programme will provide
electricity and drinking water to all habitations before the end of the Plan
period. The Rural Health Mission is directed to reach health services to all.
The total sanitation campaign (TSC)
should provide clean environment in villages.
URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE AND URBAN POVERTY
ALLEVIATION
India is relatively less urbanized (29.2% as on 1 October 2007 as
per the projections made by the office of Registrar General of India) than
other countries at the same level of development. However, since the scope for employment
opportunities in rural areas is somewhat limited, accelerated growth as
envisaged in the Eleventh Plan is expected to result in more rapid migration of
rural populations to urban centres. To deal with the situation, a two-pronged
action plan is necessary. First, the quality of infrastructure in existing
cities will have to be upgraded
to provide improved municipal services to larger numbers of people
and, second, new suburban townships will have to be developed in the vicinity
of existing cities as satellites/ counter magnets to reduce/redistribute the
influx of population.
Not only is India less urbanized, the state of urban infrastructure,
especially the availability of water and sewage treatment facilities, is much
lower than what it should be. Urban transport infrastructure also leaves much to
be desired. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), which
commenced in the Tenth Plan, will continue to be the main vehicle for raising the
level of infrastructure and utilities in the existing cities.
The aim of the Mission is to create economically productive,
efficient, equitable and responsive cities and the focus is on:
(i) improving and augmenting the economic and social
infrastructure of cities;
(ii) ensuring basic services to the urban poor, including security
of tenure at affordable prices;
(iii) initiating wide-ranging urban sector reforms whose primary
aim will be to eliminate legal, institutional and financial constraints that
have impeded investment in urban infrastructure and services;
(iv) strengthening municipal governments and their functioning in
accordance with the provisions of the Constitutional (Seventy-Fourth) Amendment
Act, 1992.
The development of satellite townships can be left largely to the
private sector. However, in order to facilitate and induce such development the
State Governments will need to undertake provision of trunk level
infrastructure. The National Capital Region Planning Board is tasked with
planning the process of infrastructure development for the areas around Delhi.
Similar boards can be set up to undertake coordinated development of townships around
other large cities, learning from the Delhi experience to make the planning
process more effective.
Urban poverty alleviation and slum development will continue to be
an important component of the Eleventh Plan. The Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar
Yojana (SJSRY), a CSS to provide gainful employment to the urban unemployed (below
the poverty line) will be implemented in a
revamped form during the Eleventh Plan period.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AS A DRIVER OF GROWTH
Science and Technology are important drivers of economic growth
and development in the contemporary world.
In order to enlarge the pool of scientific manpower in the country
and to attract and foster talent in scientific research a programme for ‘Innovations in Science Pursuit for Inspired
Research’ (INSPIRE) will be
launched. This will involve innovation funding in schools, summer camp
with Science Icons (for high performers), assured career opportunity
scheme for proven talent, and retention of talent in publicly-funded research.
In addition, the Oversight Committee recommendation regarding Scholarships for Higher Education (SHE)
providing 10000 scholarships per year for attracting talented science students
of BSc and MSc courses will also be effectively implemented.
Universities are the cradle for basic research. To promote basic
research in the country, a two pronged strategy will be adopted, aiming at:
(i) Expansion and strengthening of the S&T base in the
universities, and
(ii) providing support to established centres of advanced research
on the basis of competitive research funding for undertaking major and
internationally competitive research programmes.
An effort would also be made to ensure that the wide pool of
excellence available in the publically funded research institutions also
participate actively as adjunct faculty in the universities and newly created
academic and research institutions.
Effective mechanisms for promoting scientific research in the
country
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Translating the vision of environmental sustainability will
require that environment concerns are
given a very high priority in development planning at all levels
in the Eleventh Plan. Enforcement mechanisms
for dealing with industrial and vehicular pollution will be strengthened on the
principle of polluter pays concept.
Environmental management (including municipal solid waste and
sewage management). Integrate sewage treatment with water conservation. Local
bodies will be provided with adequate financial support for the purpose.
The River Conservation Programme
The prospect of climate change presents a serious threat to our
development over the longer term horizon.
Development and promotion of low carbon and high energy-efficient technologies
with reasonable costs will be a priority. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
will be used as an incentive. A National Action plan on Climate Change is being
prepared.
PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS (PRIS)
AS DELIVERY MECHANISMS
The Eleventh Plan seeks to substantially empower and use PRIs as
the primary means of delivery of the essential services that are critical to
inclusive growth. The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution have led to
the establishment of about 2.5 lakh elected institutions of local
self-government. (about 2.38 lakh in rural areas and the rests in urban areas).
We have about 3.2 million elected representatives in the PRIs of which as many
as 1.2 million are women. There are more elected women in India alone than in the
rest of the world put
together. It is absolutely critical for the inclusiveness of our
growth process that these large numbers of elected representatives in our PRIs
are fully involved in planning, implementing and supervising the delivery of
the essential public services.
MONITORABLE TARGETS
A key feature of the inclusive growth strategy in the Eleventh
Plan is that growth of GDP should not be treated as an end in itself, but only
as a means to an end. This is best done by adopting monitor able targets which would
reflect the multi-dimensional economic and social objectives of inclusive
growth. Furthermore, to ensure efficient and timely implementation of the
accompanying projects and programmes, these targets need to be disaggregated at
the level of the States which implement many of the programmes.
Following this approach, 27 monitorable targets have been identified at the national level of which 13 can be
disaggregated at the level of individual States. These targets are ambitious,
but it is better to aim high and fail than to aim low.
THE 27 NATIONAL TARGETS
Twenty-seven targets at the national level fall in six major
categories. The six categories are:
(i) Income and Poverty;
(ii) Education;
(iii) Health;
(iv) Women and Children;
(v) Infrastructure; and
(vi) Environment.
The targets in each of these categories are given below.
(i) Income and Poverty
• Average GDP growth rate of 9%
per year in the Eleventh Plan period.
• Agricultural GDP growth rate
at 4% per year on the average.
• Generation of 58 million new
work opportunities.
• Reduction of unemployment
among the educated to less than 5%.
• 20% rise in the real wage rate
of unskilled workers.
• Reduction in the head-count
ratio of consumption poverty by 10 percentage points.
(ii) Education
• Reduction in the dropout rates
of children at the elementary level from 52.2% in 2003–04 to 20% by 2011–12.
• Developing minimum standards
of educational attainment in elementary schools, to ensure quality education.
• Increasing the literacy rate
for persons of age 7 years or more to 85% by 2011–12.
• Reducing the gender gap in
literacy to 10 percentage points by 2011–12.
• Increasing the percentage of
each cohort going to higher education from the present 10% to 15% by 2011–12.
(iii) Health
• Infant mortality rate (IMR) to
be reduced to 28 and maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to 1 per 1000 live births
by the end of the Eleventh Plan.
• Total Fertility Rate to be
reduced to 2.1 by the end of the Eleventh Plan.
• Clean drinking water to be
available for all by 2009, ensuring that there are no slip-backs by the end of
the Eleventh Plan.
• Malnutrition among children of
age group 0–3 to be reduced to half its present level by the end of the Eleventh
Plan.
• Anaemia among women and girls
to be reduced to half its present level by the end of the Eleventh Plan.
(iv) Women and Children
• Sex ratio for age group 0–6 to
be raised to 935 by 2011– 12 and to 950 by 2016–17.
• Ensuring that at least 33% of
the direct and indirect beneficiaries of all government schemes are women and girl
children.
• Ensuring that all children
enjoy a safe childhood, without any compulsion to work.
(v) Infrastructure
• To ensure electricity
connection to all villages and BPL households by 2009 and reliable power by the
end of the Plan.
• To ensure all-weather road
connection to all habitations with population 1000 and above (500 and above in hilly
and tribal areas) by 2009, and all significant habitations by 2015.
• To connect every village by
telephone and provide broadband connectivity to all villages by 2012.
• To provide homestead sites to
all by 2012 and step up the pace of house construction for rural poor to cover all
the poor by 2016–17.
(iv) Environment
• To increase forest and tree
cover by 5 percentage points.
• To attain WHO standards of air
quality in all major cities by 2011–12.
• To treat all urban waste water
by 2011–12 to clean river waters.
• To increase energy efficiency
by 20% by 2016–17.
THE 13 STATE-SPECIFIC TARGETS
The Eleventh Plan has been formulated in a manner whereby 13 of
the 27 monitorable national
targets have been disaggregated into appropriate targets for
individual States. These are
(i) GDP growth rate
(ii) Agricultural growth rate
(iii) New work opportunities
(iv) Poverty ratio
(v) Drop out rate in elementary schools
(vi) Literacy rate
(vii) Gender gap in literacy rate
(viii) Infant mortality rate (IMR)
(ix) Maternal mortality ratio (MMR)
(x) Total Fertility Rate (TFR)
(xi) Child malnutrition
(xii) Anaemia among women and girls
(xiii) Sex-ratio
SIZE OF THE ELEVENTH PLAN
The total public sector outlay in the Eleventh Plan (both Centre
and States and including their PSEs) is estimated at Rs 3644718 crore. Of this
total, the share of the Centre (including the plans of PSEs) will amount to Rs
2156571 crore, while that of the States and union territories (UTs) will be Rs
1488147 crore.
The proposed size of the Eleventh Plan is much larger than the
projected outlay, as well as the actual realization, in the Tenth Plan. At
comparable prices, the Eleventh Plan outlay will be 120% higher than the Tenth Plan
realization.
Mobilizing resources in the public sector to finance the proposed
Eleventh Plan will call for a major effort at generating tax revenues and
controlling non- Plan expenditure and also improving the resource generation
capacity of the PSEs.
No comments:
Post a Comment