12th Five – Year Plan in India (2012 - 17)

The theme of the approach Paper is “faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth”.

Average growth target has been set at 8.2 percent.

Growth rate has been lowered to 8.2% from the 9.0% projected earlier in view of adverse domestic and global situation.

Areas of main thrust are:-

·         Infrastructure.

·         Health.

·         Education.

The commission had accepted then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s suggestion that direct cash transfer of subsidies in food, fertilizers and petroleum be made by the end of the 12^th Plan period.

The 12^th Plan seeks to achieve 4% agriculture sector growth during the five – year period.

On poverty alleviation, the commission plans to bring down the poverty ration by 10%. At present, the poverty is around 30% of the population.

Health and education sectors are major thrust areas and the outlays for these in the plan have been raised.

The outlay on health would include increased spending in related areas of drinking water and sanitation.

The target is to generate 50 million new jobs while achieving 8% growth target.

The plan aims at increasing investment in infrastructure to 9% of the GDP by the end of the Plan period (2012 - 17).

The aggregate Plan resources are estimated at Rs. 37.16 lakh crore during the five – year period.

The other targets include increasing green cover by one million hectare every year and adding 30,000 MW of renewable energy generation capacity in the Plan period.

It also seeks to reduce emission intensity of the GDP in line with the target of 20 – 25 reduction by 2020 over 2005 levels.

Three different Economic Scenarios for 12^th Five – year Plan:-

The Five – year Plans earlier used to present single growth projection. However, this time the Planning Commission has come out with three different economic scenarios for 12^th Five – year Plan. They are presented as follows :-

·         As per the inspirational scenario one of strong inclusive growth – India’s economic growth will be average 8% in the five years.

·         In the scenario of insufficient action, the GDP growth is likely to be in the range of 6.5 – 7.0%.

·         The document also cautions that in scenario of policy logjam, the GDP growth could slow down to 5 – 5.5%.

The Planning Commission is banking on reinvigorating a few existing policies while expecting vastly improved performance in certain key areas. For example, gross fixed capital formation rate to go up to 35% from the present 32%, with the private sector playing a major role in catalysing such investment; a new industrial policy that focuses on better coordination between the Government and the private sector to vastly improve business sentiment; stressing the importance of national industrial manufacturing zones in a scheme of reviving industrial output.