Plan panel to focus on farm growth

Buoyed by the economic upswing, Planning Commission will pitch for over 8 per cent growth in the 11th plan with a special focus to double fa...

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Buoyed by the economic upswing, Planning Commission will pitch for over 8 per cent growth in the 11th plan with a special focus to double farm growth, a drag on the economy in the previous plans.

Unveiling a three-pronged strategy to push up GDP growth in the next plan, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday said, “It is quite clear farm sector has underperformed since 1996-97 and it is our intention to give special attention to the sector”.

Reeling out statistics, he told an interactive session with the forum of financial writers that in the 9th and 10th plans one of the reasons for slippages in the GDP growth target was agriculture, which grew by just half of the projected 4 per cent growth target.

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Sharing the thinking of the Commission on the 11th plan, which may undergo some fine tuning after consultations, he said the other thrust area is likely to be infrastructure development, where the role of public-private partnership would be encouraged to bring about qualitative and quantitative improvement.

The Rs 1,00,000 crore National Urban Renewal Mission, which is likely to be cleared soon and the Rs 1,74,000 crore Bharat Nirman programme for rural areas, would form the basis to upgrade country’s creaking infrastructure, Ahluwalia added.

In the social sector, education and health would be the “mantra” for the 11th plan, Ahluwalia said, adding with the fall in drop out rate after introduction of mid-day meal scheme more secondary schools will need to be built.