The 12th Five Year Plan

As the country moves to adopt the 12 th Five-Year Plan, macro economic balance with environment sustainability, water and energy management, along with urbanisation are going to be the key challenges before the government. Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the government would target 9%-9.5% GDP growth in the 12 th Five-Year Plan period as against the 8.2% GDP growth at the end of the 11 th Plan period. Ahluwalia said the government would try to bring down fiscal deficit from 9.4% currently to 5.5% by 2014. He also said the subsidiary on diesel, kerosene and power needed to be cut down to bridge the gap in fiscal deficit. According to Ahluwalia, with the changing lifestyle and food habits of the people, agriculture sector would have to shift its focus from the production of crops to dairy and livestocks products. The farm sector would be required to grow at 4%. The panel head said the management of water and energy was going to be one of the biggest challenges in the coming years. The 12 th Five-Year Plan wouldn try to address these problems by focusing on technology and efficient use to water and energy. He also said there was a need to have a re-look at the pros and cons of nuclear power in the light of recent disaster in Japan.