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| "I welcome you all to this very important meeting of the Planning Commission which is to discuss the draft 11th Five Year Plan. This is an important occasion as we are going to leave our collective stamp on the development approach that is going to guide our national efforts in the next five years. The last three years under the UPA government have seen a large number of new initiatives focusing on agriculture, rural development, infrastructure and the social sectors. Most of these initiatives are path-breaking in their own way, commit large resources to individual programmes and have brought the concerns and needs of the poor to the centre of our economic and social agenda. They are all, in many ways, steps towards our larger goal of rapid and inclusive growth. The Eleventh Plan has given us a chance to weave all these individual sectoral initiatives into a coherent whole, focusing on rapid economic growth reaching out to every nook and corner of our vast country.
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| "We are certainly entering the Eleventh Plan in a strong position as far as growth is concerned. Growth in the first four years of our government will be close to 9%. We have never had such a consistently good growth performance in the past. It is important to emphasize the importance of growth for our economy. It provides the basis for expanding our resource base and consequently, our expenditures. It is the remarkable growth that we have seen in the last three years and the efforts put in by the Finance Ministry to gather more revenues that have enabled the huge expansion in outlays on rural employment, Bharat Nirman, agriculture, health and education that we have seen during this period. We must continue to create an environment where the growth processes continue to be vigorous and there is simultaneously full scope for individual initiative, creativity and enterprise.
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| "Of course, the growth cannot be restricted to isolated pockets or to certain sections of society. We need it to be far more broad based. The Plan, therefore, rightly emphasizes a strategy of inclusive growth. We must certainly do what is necessary to achieve the target of 9 - 10% growth during the 11th Plan period. We must build on the strengths already evident to achieve this growth outcome. Simultaneously, we must ensure that delivery services of programmes for the empowerment of the poorer sections of our society are effective and free of leakages suggestive of wasteful use of scarce resources.
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| "There are legitimate concerns on inclusiveness. The Plan does bring out the fact that the reduction in poverty and the quality of employment created up to 2004-05 is inadequate. We do not have data on what happened to employment and poverty beyond 2004-05. We do not really know our government has done better on these dimensions but there is reason to hope that initiatives such as the NREGA, Bharat Nirman, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meal and National Rural Health Mission may have improved the situation. Nevertheless there is no room for complacency on this issue. The numbers remain too large and poverty line is over 30 years old. I am glad the Planning Commission has set up an expert group to review this matter. It must complete its work fast.
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| "We must also ensure that growth is inclusive in the broadest sense of the term. This requires revival of agriculture, full encouragement of the manufacturing sector with special emphasis on expansion of industrial enterprises of all sizes, and a strong effort in promoting programmes that deliver essential services to the common man and also provide livelihood support.
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| "I am happy to note that the share of the Central GBS allocation to key sectors such as agriculture, irrigation and rural development, health and education is being substantially increased. We must ensure that the additional funds being provided are properly spent, especially since much of what needs to be done is in these sectors.
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"Looking at the details of each sector, there is cause for considerable satisfaction that outlay on education goes up from 7.68% of the Central GBS in the 10th Plan to over 19% in the 11th Plan. It is the most favoured sector and the three fold increase in its share and a five fold increase in the actual outlays demonstrate the criticality of this sector in ensuring sustained and inclusive growth in the future. I would like to emphasize that this investment will pay off with a time lag
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