UPA II: Good, but could put more, says PM’s report card

The Indian economy grew by about 7 per cent in 2011-12, which is amongst the highest in the world, despite an adverse international economic environment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.

The sustained high rates of growth during the UPA government's tenure have enabled the government to pursue our agenda of inclusive and equitable growth and put lot more resources in social sector such as education and health, the prime minister said while presenting the UPA government's report card.

Highlighting the achievements of his government, Manmohan said poverty in the country has declined at twice the rate that it did before the UPA government's tenure.

''There have been notable successes in agriculture. The agricultural growth rate has risen to 3.3 per cent per annum in the 11th Five Year Plan as against 2.3 per cent per annum in the 10th Five Year Plan. Rural wages have also increased. Farmers have been given handsome prices for their crops.''

Besides, he said:

• The year saw record foodgrain production, crossing 250 million tonnes for the first time in our history;
  
• More than Rs2,00,000 crore disbursed to 27.5 million marginal and small farmers as loans;
  
• Primary school enrolment has become near universal with 51,000 new schools and 6,80,000 new teachers in the last two years;
  
• India has been declared polio-free by the World Health Organisation;
  
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme now covers one out of five households;
  
• India emerged the second fastest growing telecom market in the world with nearly 100 million new telephone connections last year, including more than 40 million in rural areas;
  
• India added new power generation capacity of 20,000 MW last year, which is almost equal to the capacity added during the entire 10th Five Year Plan period;
  
• Provided 3.5 million new electricity connections in rural India last year;
  
• Affirmative measures taken to help expand opportunities for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women; and

Agni-5 long range ballistic missile launched and RISAT-1 fabricated and launched successfully.

On the internal security issue, the prime minister said the scenario has by and large been satisfactory although the scourge of Naxalism continues to be a major problem.

He also noted the significant developments in the country's relations with its neighbours, notably with Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar.

As a responsible member of the United Nations Security Council and other international fora, we have made important contributions in addressing global issues.

''Despite these real and solid achievements, there are undoubtely uncertainties and a large unfinished agenda before us. We will attend to these tasks firmly,'' he said.

He said difficult decisions have to be taken on both spending and revenue mobilisation. Both the centre and the states have to be fiscally responsible. We also have to remove implementation bottlenecks that are preventing large projects from getting off the ground. We have to quicken the pace of implementation of our policies of inclusive growth, particularly in the areas of health and education. We need to improve coordination between the centre and states on important issues that face our country, he said.  

India faces pressures on balance of payments and the fiscal situation requires careful management. However, he said these are manageable and with determined measures to boost the climate for industrial investment, both domestic and foreign, India can achieve progress, he said.

''An urgent priority is to resolve issues relating to land acquisition, resettlement and the environment. We need to strengthen our food security system by building more storage capacity.  We must address the scourge of malnutrition through multi-dimensional interventions. We need to scale up our skill development programme,'' he said.

He also offered to address the menace of corruption and said his government is working sincerely to address this issue through both legislative and administrative measures.