Industrial growth of 10 pc 'achievable'; power only drag: Survey

New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) Industrial growth of 10 per cent annually during the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012) appears 'eminently achievable', but is 'crucially dependent' on removal of infrastructual impediments in the power sector, says the Economic Survey 2006-07.

As the country enters the first year of the Eleventh Plan, the survey underlines the need to accelerate industrial growth by capacity addition through investment besides removal of infrastructual hindrances.

''The investment scenario looks quite optimistic with rising domestic savings rates and FDI inflows. Sustained economic growth, fiscal consolidation and an enabling policy environment will continue to provide incentive to capacity addition in industry and sustaining its high growth,'' it says.

The expected overall annual growth of industry in the Tenth Plan period (2002-2007) at around 8.7 per cent was likely to be short of the targeted growth rate of 10 per cent for the Plan period.

For employment generation, adequate expansion of employment in the industrial sector, especially in the organised segment required attention.

The survey lays stress on building of appropriate skills through a wide variety of vocational training as well as optimal degree of flexibility of labour laws, saying progress on these fronts would determine how much progress was made in generating employment in the organised industry in the years to come.

UNI