The full Planning Commission meeting on Thursday approved the draft proposal for the 11th Plan.

With an aim to improve the living standards in the country, the 11th Plan draft document has set ambitious targets of per capita income growth of 7.6% each year, and an overall average economic growth of 9%.

The Plan aims at an average growth rate of 9%, accelerating it from 8% in the first year of the Plan (2007) to 10% by the end of the Plan period (2011-12). The Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) for the new Five Year Plan has been increased 75% and fixed at Rs 14,21,711 crore, up from Rs 8,10,400 crore in the previous Plan. GBS is the Centre’s support to the Plan. In order to make growth more inclusive, the new Plan proposes to hike the agriculture sector growth rate to 4%, from 2.13% in the 10th Plan.

For industry and services sector, the target growth rate have been pegged at 9-11%. The industrial sector grew at 8.74%, while the services sector grew by 9.28% in previous plan period.

In a bid to meet funding requirement of the Plan, the draft document has envisaged a savings rate of 34.8%, which is substantially higher than 30.8% in the current Plan.

The investment rate, which is crucial to the success of the Plan, is proposed to be raised to 36.7% from 30.8% in the previous plan. Some of the important targets of the 11th Plan are reduction of poverty by 10 percentage points, generating 7 crore new employment opportunities and ensuring electricity connection to all villages.

The draft document, which seeks to make growth more inclusive by significantly increasing the outlay for the priority sector programmes, will now be placed before to the Union Cabinet for vetting. The Plan also proposes to hike investment on infrastructure, including irrigation, drinking water and sewage from 5% of GDP in 2005-06 to 9% by 2011-12.

The non-priority sector will receive the same amount as was allocated to it in the 10th Plan and would have to fend for itself.

The allocation towards the non-priority sector has been reduced to 25.33% of the GBS from 44.80% in the 10th Plan.