TNI Bureau: The Government has approved the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) document that seeks to achieve annual average economic growth rate of 8.2 percent.
Now, the document will be placed before the National Development Council (NDC), the apex decision-making body, for final approval. The NDC headed by the Prime Minister with all Chief Ministers and Cabinet Ministers on board, is the final authority to approve the five-year long policy document.
The five year policy has said that to achieve the targeted growth rate, the fixed investment rate should rise to 35 percent of GDP (at constant prices) by the end of the 12th Plan, yielding an average fixed investment rate of 34 percent of GDP (at constant prices) for the entire Plan as a whole.
The Plan also emphasises a broad definition of inclusiveness, which encompasses a spread of benefits to the weaker sections, inducing SC/STs, OBCs and minorities, and regional balance in development. It also stresses on the need to speed up the pace of implementation of infrastructure projects.
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The ambitious Plan also estimates resources at highest level and hope to expand the interventions in critical areas like health, education, drinking water, sanitation etc.
Besides other things, the 12th Plan seeks to achieve 4 percent agriculture sector growth during the Plan period. The growth target for manufacturing sector has been pegged at 10 percent. Plan also emphasises the need for speeding up the implementation of infrastructure projects.
The total plan size has been proposed at Rs 47.7 lakh crore, 135 percent more that the investments realised in the 11th Plan (2007-12).
In view of the ongoing global problems, the average annual growth target for the 12th Plan has been scaled down at 8.2 percent from 9 percent envisaged in the Approach Paper to the 12th Plan.
However, during the 11th Plan (2007-12), India has recorded an average economic growth rate of 7.9 percent. This, however, is lower than the 9 percent target envisaged in 11th Plan.