After 50 years and nine Five-year Plans, the government is revamping its planning process to reflect the changing economic reality. The Tenth Five-year Plan (2002-03 to 2007-08) document will be presented in four volumes instead of the usual two. The Plan will also focus on strategies to improve growth and the policy challenges facing the government, rather than the old format of technically determining the capital required to achieve a desired growth rate.
In keeping with the new format of the Plan, the Planning Commission, which puts the plans together is also looking at outsourcing some sections of the Plan, ostensibly, to bring in a fresh approach and new thinking to the planning process.
"As the economy has liberalised, development and growth will come more from the private sector and less from the public sector. So, instead of focussing on capital-output ratios for public sector investments, the focus should be on policy imperatives to fuel further growth in the private sector," say officials.
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Also, once the Plan document is endorsed by the Cabinet and the National Development Council (NDC), which consists of the state Chief Ministers, there will be greater consensus and agreement on policy reforms to be pursued in the coming five years.
"States cannot disagree on the policy prescriptions, to which they have been party to in the Plan document," they add.
This could be very crucial for the second generation reforms, which depend on the states to a large extent.
The policy prescription for the government will constitute Volume I of the Plan document.