The process of economic reforms initiated by the Congress Government in the early 1990s has paid rich dividends in many dimensions. Yet it is also true that our economic performance has deteriorated in the second half of the 1990s. After achieving a growth rate of 6.7 per cent in the Eight Plan period, the economy decelerated to 5.4 per cent in the Ninth Five Year Plan. The Tenth Plan had established an ambitious target of 8.1 per cent growth, against which the actual performance attained in the first two years at around 6 per cent has been less than satisfactory. What is even more disturbing is that agricultural growth has decelerated from the mid 1990s. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that a perception has grown that the benefits of economic reforms have bypassed a substantial section of our people. Therefore I think it is incumbent on us to devise and implement a development strategy which introduces the urgently required corrective steps to achieve sustained high rates of growth in the economy, along with a significantly greater degree of inclusiveness and thereby, a lesser sense of alienation. We will need to pay much greater attention to agriculture and rural development and to reduce regional imbalances in the process of development. Basic social services such as education and health will also require a sharper focus. The National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of our government clearly articulates the components of such an inclusive strategy, and I have instructed the Planning Commission to evaluate the implications of the NCMP approach and to elaborate it into specific and feasible policies and initiatives which can be built into our development plans and programmes. The meeting only the beginning, plans and programmes. This meeting marks only. Though we have made some progress in this direction since the first plan was got ready, I do not think that we can be or should be satisfied with the progress that has been made.
