The Planning Commission is likely to complete the mid-term review of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12), and get it approved by January 2010.
Meanwhile, the initial legwork for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan will also be carried out simultaneously, so that the approach papers for the new Plan period are ready by the end of 2011.
“Whatever mid-course correction may be needed will be reflected in the review,” said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, which held its first internal meeting today after the induction of new members.
Essentially, this means that when the review is presented to the full Planning Commission, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January, it will take into account the modified economic scenario in the backdrop of the ongoing global slowdown.
One of the economic realities that the panel will have to confront is that India’s growth target of 9 per cent in the Eleventh Plan period may not be met because of the impact of the global downturn. Moreover, the sectoral allocations proposed in the Plan document have not been followed as some sectors have been given priority with additional funding to cushion the impact of the slowdown.
The Plan panel has initiated the process for the preparation of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. The period of the new plan is scheduled to begin from April 2012.
The initial legwork will involve preparation of approach papers for the new plan period. It also will include setting up steering committees so that a macro-level overview of the Twelfth Plan period is ready by the end of 2011.
The target is to make ready all the required processes for the new Plan period by January 2012. Today’s meeting was attended by Plan panel members, including Narendra Jadhav, B K Chaturvedi, Saumitra Chaudhuri, Syeda Hammed, Abhijit Sen and Mihir Shah.
Two more Plan panel members, including Rajya Sabha member Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, will join the panel this month.
Moreover, former Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani is likely to join his duties as the head of the national Unique Identification Project on July 15. The project will initially be implemented under the aegis of the Planning Commission.
The Plan panel has also approved a Rs 2,000-crore Budgetary allocation for the Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network System in the Eleventh Plan period. The system, which will connect 14,000 police stations across the country, will help in real-time monitoring of procedures related to law and order related issues. The system was approved by the government in June 2009.
