Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa probably is among the few chief ministers who have changed their policy focus in a bid to attain higher economic growth. While presiding over the first meeting of the State Planning Commission recently, Jayalalithaa seemed determined to implement a paradigm shift in her policy approach. She was disappointed with the growth rate in the primary and secondary sectors during the Eleventh Plan, which fell below the national average. Although Tamil Nadu had set itself an average growth target of 9%, the state economy could achieve a cumulative growth of only 7.8% in the first four years of the Eleventh Plan. For long, the state?s economic growth has been propelled mainly by the services sector, and the single-vertical growth could not be sustained in the long run.
She, therefore, focused on the need to make the primary and manufacturing sectors the main drivers for achieving higher growth.
As the critical bottlenecks in infrastructure development are the major stumbling blocks in sustaining higher growth in the services sector, the state also wants to get rid off these hurdles this time around. The goal is to achieve an overall growth of above 10% in the coming years. The government also wants the growth to be more inclusive, which, in turn, will reduce the urban-rural disparity.
Significantly, Jayalalithaa told the state commission members to take into consideration some of the opportunities and constraints that confront the state in tackling new challenges against the backdrop of the global financial crisis. Giving a brief on how to go about this, she outlined the key parameters.
The main goal is to achieve a higher level of sustainable economic growth, which will benefit all sections of society. The first four years of the Eleventh Plan registered an overall negative growth of 0.51% in the primary sector. The area under cultivation had been shrinking due to indisciplined urbanisation. Cropping and irrigation activities had shown no improvement. Hence, greater focus on reviving the primary sector will be the prime priority. Accordingly, the state had set for itself an ambitious target of 115 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrain production during 2011-12 as against last year?s production of 85.35 lakh metric tonnes. There will be renewed focus on the farm sector. As declared in the budget speech, the state is to usher in a second green revolution to improve agricultural production.
Agricultural production is to be improved by addressing the productivity gap, and through value addition. Importantly, a goal of increasing farmers? per capita income by 200-300% within five years has been set. The state proposes to achieve this through effective dissemination and adoption of advanced technology to increase productivity of crops, farm-based interventions for mixed farming, and by convergence of schemes to ensure integrated farm development.
Jayalalithaa told the state commission members that the state?s current emphasis is on a farm-based and habitation-based approach to planning, scheme development and implementation. The new Tamil Nadu Village Habitation Improvement Scheme will prove to be catalyst in this direction.
It will also lead to the creation of amenities of standards comparable to urban areas, in villages. The objective is to improve the standards of living of the rural people who continue to constitute a major share of the state?s population.
The state?s other key initiatives are the monorail project for Chennai and the formation of a satellite town at Thirumazhisai, the green housing programme in rural areas, provision of laptops to school and college students, creation of centres of excellence in universities of higher education, plus augmenting power supply and providing adequate infrastructure.
Jayalalithaa had created a new Special Programme Implementation Department to ensure the timely implementation of the schemes promised in her election manifesto. The new department will also provide necessary feedback to the government on the schemes and suggest the corrective course of action wherever necessary.
Another major aspect Jayalalithaa wanted to highlight was the social security net. Well aware of the rapid income erosion triggered by inflationary trends in the economy, the state has been providing an adequate social security net particularly aimed at the vulnerable sections of society. To help raise the living standards of the economically weaker sections, it has been implementing various economic and welfare schemes.
The state, which is in the process of preparing a new Industrial Policy 2011 and a Vision 2025 document, is hoping to tide over the temporary setback arising out of the power crisis and land acquisition issues by adopting investor-friendly policies. It is also formulating sector-specific policies for automobiles and auto components, bio-technology and pharma. As announced earlier, the government has kick-started the process of setting up a Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board that will identify project concepts and facilitate their execution.