"This meeting of the Planning Commission has been called to discuss the key challenges our economy will have to face in the Twelfth Plan.

 

We have just entered the last year of the Eleventh Plan, and this is an appropriate time to develop an Approach to the Twelfth Plan. To kick off our discussion, I had asked the Planning Commission to prepare a presentation on some of the key issues we need to address.

 

The Planning Commission presentation which has been circulated for this meeting brings out the fact that we will end the Eleventh Plan with about 8.2 percent GDP growth. This is short of the 9% target, but it is a commendable achievement for a Plan period which saw a severe drought as well as a global economic slowdown.

 

We have also made important progress towards our goal of greater inclusiveness. Enrollment rates have increased, drop out rates have fallen, gender gaps are being reduced. Infant mortality rates have fallen. It is true that progress in this area has been less than we had targeted and we must ensure that we do much better in future.

 

One of the problems in judging progress in socio-economic development is that the relevant data become available only after a considerable lag. For example, most of the discussion on poverty reduction is based on data for 2004-05, which is well before the Eleventh Plan began.

 

I am told that the latest data for 2009-10 have just become available and will provide the first authoritative measure of the extent of progress in poverty reduction during the Eleventh Five Year Plan period. I urge the Commission to prepare estimates of poverty based on the latest data and make them available for public discussion as soon as possible.

 

The Twelfth Plan must build on what we have achieved and indeed do better in the next five years. The objective must be faster, more inclusive and also sustainable growth. For this we need to define new targets for the Twelfth Plan. We need to identify the critical areas where existing policies and programmes are not delivering results, and should, therefore, be strengthened or even restructured. We also need to consider what new challenges have emerged which call for altogether new initiatives.

 

I have specially asked the Commission to examine challenges relating to energy, water and urbanisation which are likely to become more severe.

 

A critical issue in any Plan is the availability of resources. The Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry should work to come to an agreed position on the resources that would be available for the 12th Plan, consistent with the objective of ensuring fiscal viability. However, we do know that resources will be a constraint. This underlines the need to focus more on efficiency of resource use, and also supplement public resources with private investment, wherever feasible.

 

I understand the presentation will take about 30 minutes. Thereafter, I will invite the Minister Members, to share their thoughts on the issues raised in the presentation."