12th Five-Year Plan hopes to maintain 9% growth rate

NEW DELHI: The upcoming five-year plan is hoping to maintain its target of 9% growth rate, even after the recent events pointing towards downturn in the western economies. The Planning Commission had strengthened its approach to the twelfth plan (2012-17) on August 20 in a meeting, which was chaired by Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

In the earlier planning commission meeting, it had recommended a range of 9-9.5% for the next plan but it sticked with 9%. The present Five Year Plan had also aimed to achieve an average growth rate of 9% during the inception. But, it scaled down to 8.1% in the mid-term appraisal of the plan, mainly due to the affect of the international economic downturn.

This meeting is expected to witness discussion on varied topics such as land acquisition, coal linkage and financial condition of state power companies, skill development and inflation.