12th Plan aims 8.2% growth, document to be approved on Sat

The Full Planning Commission is all set to approve the 12th Plan document that seeks to raise the average annual economic growth during the five-year period ending March 2017 to 8.2% from 7.9% achieved in the previous Plan on Saturday.

The meeting, which has been called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will also vet various other social sector targets relating to poverty alleviation, infant mortality, enrolment ratio and job creation. Besides other things, the 12th Plan seeks to achieve 4% agriculture sector growth during the Plan period. The growth target for manufacturing sector has been pegged at 10%. The total plan size has been proposed at Rs 47.7 lakh crore, 135% more that the investments realised in the 11th Plan (2007-12). The meeting will be attended by regular Planning Commission members and key cabinet ministers. Once the document is approved by the full Plan panel, it will be vetted by the Union Cabinet and then placed before the National Development Council (NDC), the apex decision making body, for final approval. In view of the ongoing global problems, the average annual growth target for the 12th Plan has been scaled down at 8.2% from 9% envisaged in the Approach Paper to the 12th Plan. As regards poverty alleviation, the Commission proposed to bring down the poverty ratio by 10 percentage points during the Plan period. At present the poverty is around 30% of the population. Also read: HSBC cuts India GDP forecast on lack of reforms