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India Updates
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PRIME MINISTER CHAIRS FULL PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
New Delhi ~ June 27 2001
Following is the text of the opening remarks of the Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee while chairing the Full Planning Commission Meeting
here today:
I am very happy to chair this meeting of the Planning Commission today to discuss among other issues the
Approach Paper to the Tenth Five Year Plan.
The Approach Paper to the Tenth Five Year Plan talks of raising the growth rate of the economy from 6% to 8%. I
am glad that the Commission has responded to the challenge that I had placed before them in our last meeting in
September, 2000. Even this, in my view, is less than the expectations that have been raised in our society in the
recent past. Moreover, growth in itself cannot be our only development goal. The notion of human well-being has to
be more broadly conceived to include not only the material requirement of all sections of our population but also
their access to social services, particularly, of health and education in a manner that makes them more capable and
bring them productively into the mainstream of economic activity.
I appreciate that the vision that we have articulated in our country will require significant changes in the manner in
which we carry out the economic and social development activities. We will have to revise our policies, procedures
and institutions in order to unleash the productive potential of our people. Government at various levels will need to
reinvent itself so that its principal role becomes that of a facilitator rather than a controller of individual initiatives. I
also accept that this will require an all party consensus and political unanimity.
I hope that the Tenth Plan document will provide a detailed blue-print of the measures on which we can all agree
based upon the broad strategic approach that has been outlined in the Approach Paper. Fortunately, the process of
plan formulation appears to be on schedule, which should give us enough time to forge the necessary political
consensus.
The other issues of today's agenda are also important and should be resolved as soon as possible. I agree with the
Deputy Chairman that we should get these issues out of the way before we enter into a detailed discussion of the
Approach to the Tenth Five year Plan.
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