Economy responding positively to reforms; set to grow by little over 7%, says PM
The Financial Express, December 28, 2009, Page 2
fe Bureaus, Bhubaneswar
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday defended the economic reform programmes of the country stating that the new policies have had a positive effect on the general economy of the country.
Despite the global meltdown, India will achieve at least 7% growth this year, Singh said while addressing the 92nd Indian Economic Association (IEA) annual conference.
Those who claimed that the new polices would have an adverse effect on growth or the balance payments were clearly wrong, Singh asserted. He said there is no evidence that the new economic policies have had an adverse effect on the poor of the country. He also said the percentage of population below the poverty line has certainly not increased. In fact, it has continued to decline after economic reforms, he observed.
This phenomenon is contrary to critics' arguments that the new policies would make the rich richer and the poor poorer and the percentage of population below poverty line would increase, others focused on a possible worsening of urban-rural differentials and regional inequalities.
The prime minister, however, said poverty remained a major challenge and “we need to do much more to improve the standard of living of the poor who are still too poor and to end this the economy has to grow fast enough to create new job opportunities at a rate faster than the growth of the labour force.” “Our goal is inclusive growth and this has been explicitly enshrined in the 11th Five Year Plan and to achieve the objective of inclusive growth we need to pay much greater attention to education, health care and rural development focusing particularly on the needs of the poor,” he said. The PM said while it was true that the rate of decline of poverty has not been faster, he added that “there is no doubt that it has declined.”
He said all discussion on trends in poverty is based on the NSS survey date and the latest large sample estimate of the NSS is available only for 2004-2005.
“We do not as yet have the next large sample estimate for 2009-2010 which should be available a year from now,” the Prime Minister said, adding that “since the period of rapid growth of the economy was largely after 2004-2005, we will have to wait for a year to know its impact on the poor.” Singh said special attention has to be paid on increasing agricultural productivity particularly of small and marginal farmers. In industry, more systematic efforts have to be made to help small firms in mobilising resources of governance so as to reduce the scope of corruption, lower transaction costs of starting a new business and create en environment conducive to promotion of innovation.
The Financial Express, December 28, 2009, Page 2
fe Bureaus, Bhubaneswar
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday defended the economic reform programmes of the country stating that the new policies have had a positive effect on the general economy of the country.
Despite the global meltdown, India will achieve at least 7% growth this year, Singh said while addressing the 92nd Indian Economic Association (IEA) annual conference.
Those who claimed that the new polices would have an adverse effect on growth or the balance payments were clearly wrong, Singh asserted. He said there is no evidence that the new economic policies have had an adverse effect on the poor of the country. He also said the percentage of population below the poverty line has certainly not increased. In fact, it has continued to decline after economic reforms, he observed.
This phenomenon is contrary to critics' arguments that the new policies would make the rich richer and the poor poorer and the percentage of population below poverty line would increase, others focused on a possible worsening of urban-rural differentials and regional inequalities.
The prime minister, however, said poverty remained a major challenge and “we need to do much more to improve the standard of living of the poor who are still too poor and to end this the economy has to grow fast enough to create new job opportunities at a rate faster than the growth of the labour force.” “Our goal is inclusive growth and this has been explicitly enshrined in the 11th Five Year Plan and to achieve the objective of inclusive growth we need to pay much greater attention to education, health care and rural development focusing particularly on the needs of the poor,” he said. The PM said while it was true that the rate of decline of poverty has not been faster, he added that “there is no doubt that it has declined.”
He said all discussion on trends in poverty is based on the NSS survey date and the latest large sample estimate of the NSS is available only for 2004-2005.
“We do not as yet have the next large sample estimate for 2009-2010 which should be available a year from now,” the Prime Minister said, adding that “since the period of rapid growth of the economy was largely after 2004-2005, we will have to wait for a year to know its impact on the poor.” Singh said special attention has to be paid on increasing agricultural productivity particularly of small and marginal farmers. In industry, more systematic efforts have to be made to help small firms in mobilising resources of governance so as to reduce the scope of corruption, lower transaction costs of starting a new business and create en environment conducive to promotion of innovation.
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