lannin in ndia      5.25
     Eleventh Plan                                               (i) Restoring dynamism in agriculture,
     The Plan targets a growth rate of 10 per cent and          (ii) Managing India’s water resources,
     emphasises the idea of ‘inclusive growth’. In the        (iii) Problems in achieving power generation
     approach paper, the Planning Commission shows                   targets,
     its concerns regarding realising the growth targets       (iv) Issues pertaining to urbanisation, and
     on account of the compulsions towards the Fiscal           (v) Special problems of tribal development.
     Responsibility and Budget Management Act. In
                                                                 In respect of agriculture, the mid-term
     recent times some aberrations in the economy
                                                           appraisal notes that though performance of
     have started to increase the government’s concerns
                                                           agriculture and the rate of growth in the Eleventh
     in meeting the Plan target of 10 per cent growth.
                                                           Plan is likely to be better than that in the Tenth
     The major concerns are:
                                                           Plan, it may, however, not reach the target of 4
           (i) A higher inflation (above 6 per cent)       per cent per year. The need to focus on agriculture
               led to the tightening of the credit policy  and other critical issues mentioned above would
               forcing lower investment in the economy     require concerted action by the Centre and the
               (which will lower production);              states.
          (ii) A stronger rupee is making export                 The Review by the PC regarding the Poverty
               earnings shrink fast;                       Estimates is also important when the issue has
         (iii) Costlier foodgrains and other primary       become a matter of debate in the country. The
               articles playing havoc for the poor masses; Planning Commission is the nodal agency for
         (iv) Costlier oil prices becoming a burden for    estimating poverty in the country, both at the
               the national exchequer; etc.                national level and across the states. It estimates
           Not only the government but the                 poverty on the basis of poverty line defined
     Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as well as     in terms of monthly per capita consumption
     the World Bank expressed doubts in the Eleventh       expenditure. The Commission has been estimating
     Plan realising the ambitious 10 per cent growth.      poverty line and poverty ratio since 1997 on the
                                                           basis of the methodology contained in the report
     Eleventh Plan: Performance                            of the Expert Group on ‘Estimation of Number
     The Planning Commission (PC) had attempted            and Proportion of Poor’ (known as Lakdawala
     the mid-term appraisal of the Plan, which             Committee Report). The Head-count poverty ratio
     was considered and approved by the National           has been estimated by using the above mentioned
     Development Council in July 2010. The                 poverty lines from a large size sample survey of
     appraisal document reviewed the developments          household consumption expenditure carried out
     and provided a comprehensive assessment of the        by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO)
     performance of the economy during the Eleventh        with an interval of 5 years approximately.
     Plan period so far, in different sectors, together          The Planning Commission constituted an
     with suggested mid-course corrections. It has         Expert Group in December 2005 under the
     drawn attention to the problems in some selected      chairmanship of Prof. Suresh D. Tendulkar
     areas and identified constraints that would be of     to review the methodology for estimation of
     relevance for the balance period of the Eleventh      poverty. The Expert Group submitted its report in
     Plan and also for the Twelfth Plan. These include     December 2009. While acknowledging the multi-
     inter-alia:                                           dimensional nature of poverty, the Expert Group