Prime Minister Singh Warns \'Business As Usual\' Will Not Work

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed a meeting of the National Development Council in New Delhi on Thursday. The meeting was called to finalize a draft of India's 12th five-year plan (2012-17) that aims for faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth. Mr. Singh emphasized the need to improve gender inequality and said that “business as usual,” will not help achieve high economic growth.

Excerpts of his speech:

Overall Growth Target:

The Deputy Chairman has indicated that in view of the latest assessment of the state of the global economy, the overall growth target for the Twelfth Plan is being set at 8 percent. This is a reasonable modification but I must emphasize that achieving an average of 8 percent growth, following less than 6 percen t in the first year, is still an ambitious target. As the Plan document makes clear, the high growth scenario will definitely not materialize if we follow a “business as usual” policy.

Gender Inequality:

Women and girls represent half the population and our society has not been fair to this half. Their socio-economic status is improving, but gaps persist. The emergence of women in public spaces, which is an absolutely essential part of social emancipation, is accompanied by growing threats to their safety and security. I have in mind the brutal attack on a young woman only a few days ago in the capital and other such reprehensible incidents elsewhere. We must reflect on this problem, which occurs in all states and regions of our country, and which requires greater attention both by the Center and the States.

Direct Cash Transfer:

A common complaint against government programs is that they suffer from leakages, co rruption, delays and poor targeting. The Central Government is taking a major step to deal with this problem by shifting several beneficiary oriented schemes to a direct transfer mode, using the Aadhaar platform. This will begin to roll out for selected schemes in selected districts in the course of January 2013. In due course, a wide range of benefits like scholarships for students, pensions for elderly, health benefits, MNREGA wages and many other benefits will migrate to direct transfer into bank accounts using Aadhaar as a bridge.

Energy Pricing:

Energy is a critical input for any growth process and our domestic energy resources are not sufficient to meet our country's growing needs. We import oil, natural gas and in recent years even coal. If we wish to keep our energy import requirement within reasonable limits, we must emphasize energy efficiency to moderate demand and we must increase domestic production of energy. Energy pricing is criti cal for both objectives. If domestic energy prices are too low, there will be no incentive to increase energy efficiency or to expand even supply.

Management of Water Resources:

We are rapidly approaching the position where the total demand for water in the country simply cannot be met by available supply. As with energy, we have to respond by increasing water use efficiency and also by expanding supply in a sustainable manner. The Plan document outlines a comprehensive strategy for dealing with this problem, starting with a serious effort to map available ground water supplies aquifer by aquifer. Available water also needs to be allocated to different uses through a Water Regulatory Authority. This is an area where action lies largely in the domain of State Governments.