The Union Cabinet today discussed the Draft Twelfth Five Year
Plan document (2012-2017), and approved the proposal to place the Plan
Document before the National Development Council.
The Plan proposes an acceleration of growth over the plan period to
reach 9 percent in the terminal year, yielding an average growth rate of
8.2 percent for the plan period as a whole. It emphasizes that the
growth must be both inclusive and sustainable, and to achieve these
objectives it proposes a comprehensive game plan in terms of policies
and programmes.
The estimates show resource availability for the Twelfth Plan at
Rs.80,50,123 crore in current prices for the Centre and States taken
together. This implies the public sector resources for the Twelfth Plan
(2012-2017) would be 11.8 per cent of GDP as against 1096 per cent
realized during the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012).
To achieve the targeted growth rate, the fixed investment rate should
increase to 35 per cent of GDP (at constant prices) by the end of the
Twelfth Plan, yielding an average fixed investment rate of 34 per cent
of GDP (at constant prices) for the Twelfth Plan period as a whole. The
projected average rate of gross domestic capital formation in the
Twelfth Plan is 37 per cent of GDP, the projected gross domestic savings
rate is 34.2 per cent of GDP and the net external financing needed for
macro-economic balance would average around 2.9 per cent of GDP.
In a first attempt at presenting scenario analysis, the plan emphasizes
that the policy agenda outlined must be substantially implemented for
all the virtuous cycles to come into play that will lead to Scenario One
called the “Strong Inclusive Growth”. This would also imply we can
achieve inclusive and sustainable growth averaging 8.2 per cent over the
Twelfth Plan period.
The Plan emphasizes a broad definition of inclusiveness, which
encompasses a spread of benefits to the weaker sections, including
especially the SC/STs, OBCs and Minorities, and also regional balance in
development.
The plan emphasizes the need to speed up the pace of implementation of
infrastructure projects, which is critical for removing supply
bottlenecks which constrain growth in other sectors, and also for
boosting investor sentiment to raise the overall rate of investment.
The Plan contains ambitious programmes in health, education, water
resource management, infrastructure development, and a number of
programmes aimed at inclusiveness, most notably the National Health
Mission (NHM), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MGNREGA), the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the National Rural
Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). Considerable resources are being allocated
for these programmes. It proposes that beneficiary payments across a
large number of schemes, which have experienced leakages in the delivery
system, may be carried out through the use of the Aadhaar (UID)
platform.
