Living standards, poverty reduction rely on economic growth: Rangarajan

TRICHY: Economic growth is critically important to increase the living standards of our people, which will help in bringing down poverty in India, Dr C Rangarajan, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister said, on Wednesday.
Delivering a lecture on the current economic scenes in India at Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Trichy) on Wednesday, Rangarajan said, "The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) remains at Rs 1,600 now.It will increase to Rs 8,000 by 2025, provided the country grows at 8% per annum."
Further, he pointed out that the employment opportunity in India can be generated by means of growth. Schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), universal education and the food security bill passed in parliament recently, were achieved by growth, Rangarajan said.
About the agriculture sector in the country, he said that agriculture remained crucially important to ensure food security. As far as the 10th and 11th Five Year Plans (FYP) were concerned, the country did well in agriculture sectors. However, the country had posed the challenge of inflation in 2009 -10 and 2010-11, due to which, the food production declined by 17 million tonnes in 2009-10.
Comparing the growth rate (6.7% in 2008-09, 8% in 2009-10 and 8.5% in 2010-11), Rangarajan forecasted that the growth rate will remain at 7% to 7.25% in 2011-12. Later, speaking to media persons, he said that in order to implement the FYPs completely within the prescribed period, the mid-term appraisal will help sort out various issues in executing the schemes.
Replying to a question, he said that compared to the 10th FYP, the 11th FYP seemed to be progressive. "In the current year, the high inflation led to postponement of investment in the manufacturing sector and it resulted in reduction of growth rate. The small scale industries were also affected by number of factors, particularly shortage of power," Rangarajan said.
He also added, "We must organise our education system which should have the option for vocational training. We must train people to advance their skills as there are number of areas in which skills are required."