THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The government will strive for a consensus for implementing the Kerala Perspective Plan 2030 being formulated for comprehensive development of the State Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said.
Inaugurating a discussion organised by the State Planning Board and the Institute of Parliamentary Affairs on the plan at the Old Assembly Hall here on Wednesday for legislators he said the government would hold discussions with parties youth and organisations before finalising the plan.
Mr. Chandy said the draft of the vision would be made available on the website so that the public could give suggestions. Presiding over the function Finance Minister K.M. Mani said the primary sector in the State was lagging behind and needed acceleration for achieving double-digit growth.
In his opening remarks Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board K.M. Chandrasekhar said the Kerala Perspective Plan 2030 would be unique and be the first of its kind in the country. He also stressed the need for a consensus for executing the plan that would have growth and social security as benchmarks.
Minister for Rural Development Planning and NoRKA K.C. Joseph Minister for Excise K. Babu Minister for Agriculture K.P. Mohanan Deputy Leader of the Opposition Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and over 20 legislators attended.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A prosperous dynamic knowledge-driven competitive and ecoefficient economy in the distinguished league of the world’s advanced economies with spirit of entrepreneurship innovation tolerance and diversity has been envisaged for the State in the Kerala Perspective Plan 2030.
The New Delhi-based National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) that has prepared the report for the State Planning Board has also envisaged that the State will become a knowledge hub. It will have a distinctive expertise in education healthcare biotechnology information and communications technology biodiversity and environment-related areas.
The mission of the growth plan being worked out by the NCAER is to achieve sustainable economic prosperity and the statement is ‘quantity is not enough-quality matters.’ On the growth challenges it has said that the growth has not been accompanied by structural transformations either in terms of Gross State Domestic Product or employment. The economy seems to be trapped in low productivity circles. The paradox of economic stagnation with human development has given way to another paradox of high economic growth with low productivity and high employment.
Over 77 per cent of the growth comes from construction trade transport communication trade hotel and restaurant real estate ownership and other services. Growth in these sectors is consumption-led which in turn is driven by remittances tourism income and government expenditure.
On the economic goals the report says the aim is to achieve annual per capita income of US $36000 by 2040 and a compound rate of 7.5 per cent during the next 20 years to reach a level of $19000 equivalent to a middle high income country by 2030. A central plank of sustainable prosperity will be the development of a knowledge economy. Sustainable development and knowledge economy have been mooted as the principles of this strategy.
The Indian banking system was initially thought to be insulated from the global financial crisis owing to heavy public ownership and cautious management. It was thus a surprise when some banks experienced deposit flight, as depositors shifted their money toward government-owned banks and specifically toward the State Bank of India, the largest public bank. While there was some tendency for depositors to favour healthier banks and banks with more stable funding, the reallocation of deposits toward the State Bank of India cannot be explained by these factors alone. Rather it appears that the implicit government guarantee of the liabilities of the country’s largest public bank dominated other considerations.
After the dismal gross domestic product (GDP) numbers released last week and the fall in the Purchasing Mangers’ Index for manufacturing announced by HSBC yesterday the economy has received another setback.
In the quarter ended March the Business Confidence Index dropped 4.5 per cent compared to the previous quarter according to a National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)-MasterCard survey.
According to the 84th quarterly survey conducted in March the index stood at 114.1 points against 119.7 points in the previous quarter.
During the same period the political confidence index registered a slight improvement.
“The firm level indicators reveal lower expectations of improvement in domestic sales production imports exports and pre-tax profitsinthe next six months contributing to lower business confidence among industrial units” the survey said.
Shashanka Bhide senior research counsellor NCAER said the survey showed the sluggish pace of industrial and services output during the quarter.
He however added “The resistance of the firm level indicator of capacity utilisation and the overall sentiment on growth in the short term are important positive signs.
Policy support to strengthen these positive aspects of business confidence would hasten industrial growth recovery.”
The index of business confidence measures business confidence for four equal indicators—overall economic conditions six months ahead financial position of firms six months ahead the investment climate and the level of current capacity utilisation.
Of the four the ratings on investment climate and financial position show a decline while those on capacity utilisation and expectations on economic conditions show improvement in the short term.
The survey added input costs including those on raw material labour electricity and ex-factory prices per unit of output are expected to increase in the next six months.
The Quarterly Agricultural Outlook provides an overview of agricultural trends both globally and at the national level. Agriculture continues to be critical to India’s economy given its role in meeting the food and fibre needs of over a billion people and providing livelihoods to millions of households in rural areas. India is a major producer and consumer of several basic food commodities. The challenge is to meet the diversified and increased demand for food commodities as a result of the changing dietary preferences of the population. Imports meet a substantial share of the consumption of edible oils and pulses. The food inflation of the last two years has highlighted the need to watch the imbalances in supply and demand not just of food grains, but also of fruits, vegetables and milk, both in the short and long runs.
