The year 2008 started with a projection of economic growth of 9% for the Indian economy, but the global economic slowdown has meant 2008-09 may not see more than 7% growth. Worried over the prospects next fiscal, Planning Commission has shifted focus from inclusive growth to safeguarding a 9% growth during the 11th Plan period (fiscal year 2008-fiscal year 2012).

As the global crisis unfolded during the later part of 2008, the Planning Commission concentrated more on making policies for faster implementation of infrastructure projects and raise public expenditure to neutralise the impact of the slowdown.

The commission, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is currently drawing up the blueprint of yet another stimulus package for the current fiscal as well as the next one to spur growth and improve the health of the sectors reeling under the impact of the global crisis.

?I think we will have (a GDP growth of) 7% this year, which is pretty good,? Planning Commission?s deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said early this month. ?We have to do something next year also, that is post-election. We will have plans ready to have strong stimulation,? he added.

Growth rate averaging 8.6% in last four years of the tenth plan (FY?03-FY?07) had resulted in a savings rate estimated at 34.4% of GDP in 2006-07. The investment rate was also estimated to have gone up to 35.5% in the last fiscal compared to the average rate of 24.3% realised in the 9th plan. The 11th Plan aims at an average growth rate of 9%, going up to 10% in the terminal year. The Plan has 27 targets, including poverty, education, health, infrastructure and environment, focusing on different dimensions of inclusiveness.

Recognising the constraints that inadequate infrastructure will pose in achieving the targeted growth, the commission felt the need to increase investment in the core sector to 9% of GDP by 2011-12 from 5% in 2006-07. The commission also proposed public-private partnership in infrastructure due to limited strength of public expenditure.

In agriculture attention was paid to doubling the rate of growth from 2% in 1997 to 4% in the 11th Plan and sustaining it in the current fiscal.

The National Food Security Mission was launched in 2007-08 to produce an additional 10 million tonne of rice, eight million tonne of wheat and two million tonne of pulses.