Checking inflation focus of 12th plan, says Plan panel official

Identifying inflation as a major challenge, the UPA government will come up with a new set of reforms to check it in the 12-five year plan starting from 2012-13. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: May 4, 2011, 11:21:42 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Identifying inflation as a major challenge, the UPA government will come up with a new set of reforms to check it in the 12-five year plan starting from 2012-13.

Inflation crossed 18% mark in January 2011 making the government feel that keeping it under control will not be possible without systematic reforms in the food distribution and storage sector. Since April 2009, the inflation has increased by about 25%.

"Unless there is not a huge difference between the price farmer gets and at what the consumer buys checking inflation would be a difficult task," said Pranob Sen, principal advisor with Planning Commission, who has been given the task to formulate approach paper for the 12th plan.

While food to all through a re-structured Public Distribution System aimed at plugging leakages will be a reality in the 12th plan, the government will also target at taking agriculture infrastructure to the doorsteps for farmers. It includes cold storage chains and market access.

The commission has identified sectors where "well regulated markets are non-existent" and will come up with a strategy to create or improve markets in all sectors.

"The key would be providing access to farmers to markets all over the country," Sen said.

Another key area identified for improvement is enhancing skills and faster generation of employment.

"It is believed that India's economic growth is not generating jobs or livelihood opportunities," said a plan panel internal note on approach for 12th plan. "At the same time, many sectors face manpower shortages".

The panel also believes that there is a need to improve skills for both job market and for self-employment.

"We have to come up with modules to providing training to people who want to set up their own small business enterprises such a shops," Sen said.

Although attaining economic growth of more than 10% through mobilization of resources and efficient capital markets will remain a key objective, the 12th plan is expected to have serious of reforms to make the growth inclusive for poverty eradication, for providing quality health and education facilities.

The commission has identified inefficient transport sector as a major bottleneck for attaining higher economic growth and insufficient access to large national markets.

In the 12th plan will be a renewed focus on development of rural and urban multi-modal transport.

Sen said while the 12th plan will take ahead the work of the 11th plan the emphasis will be on having bigger impact on people of the Central government schemes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Stay updated with the latest Business News on Petrol Price, Gold Rate, Silver Rates, Diesel Prices along with Income Tax Calculator