Focus to be on policy correctives to achieve 8% GDP growth: Montek

Mid-term appraisal of Tenth Plan

The Planning Commission, in its current mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan, would identify critical policy correctives for the agriculture, infrastructure, health and education sectors, said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of Planning Commission.

Addressing the 26th convocation of Acharya Nagarjuna University as the chief guest after receiving the honourary doctorate, Montek Singh said, "If we want to achieve the 8 per cent growth in the GDP during the Tenth Plan, growth in agriculture should be around 4 per cent. The growth, which had been around 3.2 per cent from 1980 till mid 1990s, has fallen to 1.5 per cent," he said.

Emphasising on more public investment in irrigation, rural roads and watershed management schemes, he said, "More investment will inject new dynamism into agriculture. Credit delivery system and extension services should be improved. Keeping in view the changing global scenario, farmers should shift from foodgrains to horticulture crops. To market perishable horticulture produce, a new value chain comprising post-harvest technology, cold chains, refrigerated transport, grading and modern marketing should be established."

He also urged the corporate sector to take initiative in ushering in contract farming for the benefit of farmers. A few pilot projects on contract farming have shown good results, he added.

On infrastructure, the Planning Commission deputy chairman said, "We need $ 200 billion to fully develop our infrastructure, a pre-requisite to enable us to compete in the world markets. Rural, urban and industrial infrastructure should be upgraded at the earliest. Our road and railway infrastructure is inadequate. Ports are clogged and airports are unable to cope with expanding international and domestic traffic," he said.

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure, with the Prime Minister as chairman, has taken up these problems on a top priority basis, he informed, and said, "While public investment should go up in the infrastructure, there is a scope for private sector to contribute a lot in this sector."

Expressing concern over the quality of power supplied to some industries, he said, "The high-cost power supplied to some industries was of unreliable quality. The state electricity boards were losing heavily due to pilferage and low tariffs allowed for certain categories. The Electricity Act"�2003 provides for setting up of statutory State Electricity Regulatory Commissions to fix tariffs, phase out cross subsidisation, and unbundle generation, transmission and distribution, allowing open access to bulk consumers," Montek said.

According to him, an educative and healthy population alone can achieve progress in all spheres.

Two per cent education cess would provide additional resources for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which focuses on primary education and mid-day meal scheme, he said, adding, "The government would soon launch a national rural health mission. More teachers, health workers, better-equipped schools and PHCs are needed. Panchayat Raj institutions should design, implement and monitor education and health in rural areas."