Montek banks on 'inclusive' growth

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday said there were lots of positives in India's growth during the past 10 years as the development had "inclusive"

Delivering a lecture here at the Ravenshaw University, he sought to drive home the point that India's economic report card under UPA-I and -II had been the best the country had seen. "Growth in the past decade has been better than the previous one," he said. "India may not be able to achieve its targeted growth of 12th Plan, mainly because of the global slowdown but I am sure the growth we have achieved during the past 10 years has been much more inclusive," Ahluwalia said.

There had been a sharp reduction in below poverty line population, and percentage of population depending on agriculture started to decline, he said.

He said more than 140 million people had crossed over from the below poverty line to above poverty line between 2004 and 2011 and for the first time after the Independence, the country is witnessing a decline in people depending on agriculture.

"A transformation from agricultural economy to non- agricultural economy is one of the prerequisite to achieve rapid economic growth," Montek said.

Ahluwalia expressed satisfaction that the country has witnessed uniformity in growth over these years in which the Bimarou (Putting Odisha into the acronym along with Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) states have achieved commendable growths during the past decade. The Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, however, advocated that India needs macro-economic stability to achieve the targets set up for the 12th Plan and went on to advocate for more and more investments in infrastructure by reducing fiscal deficit.