Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said the 12th Five Year Plan lays emphasis not merely on economic development but on inclusive growth to bring more poor and marginal people under its ambit.
“The one point that I find reading the newspapers talking about the economic development is that there is a tendency to think that economic growth is a very narrow objective,” Ahluwalia said while addressing the convocation of the Lucknow University here.
“I think that’s correct. In the 12th Plan for that very reason we have actually set out a very different objective. Our objective is not economic growth, it will happen, but our objective is inclusive growth,” he added.
He said that’s why constant emphasis was being given to highlight on inclusive growth.
“Name of the game is growth rate that is inclusive, regionally balanced, which makes every state able to do better than in the past, which narrows the gap between different communities, which also brings in our concern for gender equality, upliftment of women, improving their educational condition and social status,” he said.
Ahluwalia said “the 12th Plan will start a very large agenda of change”.
The Deputy Chairman said when looking at the newspapers, he would find that the focus was always on the government expenditure.
“That’s very important. Actually what is going to cause this growth is not just government expenditure. Another very important thing we should realise is that 75 per cent of the investment that is actually done in the private sector,” he said.
He said, if the economy achieves an 8-9 per cent growth, which it will, then the efforts will depend on individuals like those in the corporate and the agriculture sector.