PM announces Skill Devp Mission, growth strategy

New Delhi, Dec 9: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announced the launch of a 'Mission on Skill Development' and set a target of nine per cent per annum for the Eleventh Plan period (2002-07).

This target would be achieved with greater participation of state governments and thrust on agriculture, social and physical infrastructure, the Prime Minister said.

In his inaugural address to the 52nd meeting of the National Development Council(NDC) here, Dr Manmohan Singh sent a clear message that for growth to be sustainable, it will have to be inclusive. This will include enhanced benefits to the minorities, especially the Muslim community with this minority group having the ''first claim on resources.'' ''The Central government will launch a Mission on Skill Development based on a thorough overhaul of existing training infrastructure. As a first step, the Planning Commission has appointed a Task Force on Skill Development which includes representatives of both the private and the public sector,'' he said.

The Prime Minister said the GDP growth target proposed in the Approach Paper involves accelerating growth from eight per cent likely to be achieved in the base year of the Tenth Plan to ten per cent in the final year of the next Plan, yielding an average of nine per cent growth in the Eleventh Plan period.

''This is ambitious but feasible,'' he said.

He outlined a bigger role for the States in the new Plan in view of considerable additional resources needed to achieve its objectives of growth with equity.

Saying that education was a great social and economic leveller, Dr Singh said it was necessary to go ''beyond primary education to secondary and higher education'' in the Eleventh Plan.

Stressing the need for a higher Gross Budgetary Support on the part of both the Centre and States, the Prime Minister said this will entail containment of open and hidden subsidies, revenue buoyancy, pruning ongoing programmes that are not useful and successful implemenation of Public Private Partnership(PPP) on a large scale for the development of infrastructure.

UNI