Agriculture must deliver 4% growth

Posted: Monday, Jan 01, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
Updated: Monday, Jan 01, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST

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: Montek Singh Ahluwalia is one of the original reformers. As Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, he has the onerous task of charting out an effective strategy for India over the next five years to not just sustain the 8-9% growth momentum and aim for double-digit growth rates, but also make India a global economic superpower.

He was hand-picked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the Planning Commission in June 2004. Prior to this, he was the first director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund. The Planning Commission today has evolved as a vibrant arm of the government that not only strategises, but also monitors and scrutinises the implementation of key policies...policies that span across sectors, especially those that aim to make growth inclusive.

In an expansive interview with P Vaidyanathan Iyer of The Financial Express, he dwells at length on his gameplan to plug the infrastructure and social sector deficits that India suffers today. Excerpts:

The resource needs for infrastructure are a whopping $ 320 billion over the next 5-7 years. And the PPP mode has not really taken off in India.

The resource needs are indeed large, but it would be incorrect to say that the PPP mode has not taken off. Consider the following facts. A large number of BOT road projects has been awarded under the PPP policy by the Centre, and more are on the way. Similarly, there have been a number of successful PPPs in constructing new berths in the major ports and we expect many more in the future. Two green-field private airports are under construction in Bangalore and Hyderabad and the two largest airports in the country, Mumbai and Delhi are being modernised through PPP. The bidding for the first two 400 MW ultra-mega power projects has been very successful yielding very competitive tariffs and all without any government guarantee. In a few days the Railways are going to award 14 licences to private sector operators in the container freight area in competition with Concor. These are wide ranging innovative seps in infrastructure development and they definitely qualify as “taking off”. Of course, we need more, but that only means that we have taken off, but we have yet to reach cruising speed. Remember that infrastructure development takes time and the initiatives of the past two years will bear fruit only two years from now....

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