Even as the Orissa government has renewed its effort to get special category state status, the Planning Commission seems to be not yet ready to accede to such demands.
“We receive many such requests from the states and I don’t think we can respond state by state. These are all twelfth plan issues. But the Planning Commission is not considering any changes in its guideline in this regard,” said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, on the sidelines of 7th annual convocation of KIIT University here.
It may be noted Orissa, at regular intervals, has been raising the demand before the Centre for granting it special category status over the last few decades. Chief Minister had raised the issue in the last meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) and also submitted a memorandum to this effect to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the latter’s recent visit to the state to inaugurate the 99th Indian Science Congress.
Out of different criteria for a state to be eligible for special category status, Orissa’s demand is based on its high percentage of tribal population and backwardness.
Earlier addressing the 7th Annual Convocation of KIIT University as chief guest, Ahluwalia termed the current slowdown as short term and said, the Indian economy will grow by 8-9 per cent over the next twenty years.
“There is a very good chance that Indian economy will grow somewhere between 8-9% per year in next 20 years. As time passes, in the next twenty years, average population growth will be one per cent a year as against 1.4 percent at present. This will effectively translate into a per capita income growth of 7-8 per cent,” Ahluwalia said.
Terming pace of economic growth is shifting from developed countries to developing countries and largely to Asian countries, mainly China and India, he said, “we are not the laggards. By 2030-33 largest GDP in the world will be China, second largest would be United States and third largest will be India.”
He said, providing quality education is big challenge and public private partnership (PPP) mode must be encouraged for the expansion of quality education system in the country.
“Imparting quality education has been the major focus for government in eleventh five year plan and also going to be the focus area for the 12th plan. It will not be achieved by government effort only, private participants must be encouraged for the upliftment of education system in the country,” he added.
He urged the passing students to take up the entrepreneurial activities and contribute back to the society in some possible way.
