MONITORABLE TARGETS SET BY THE TWELFTH PLAN

To focus the energies of the government and other stakeholders in development, it is desirable to identify monitorable indicators, which can be used to track the progress of our efforts. Given the complexity of the country and the development process, there are very large number of targets that can and should be used. However, there is a core set of indicators which could form the objectives towards which all development partners can work, which includes not only the Central and state governments, but also local governments, CSOs (Civil Society Organisations) and international agencies. The Twelfth Plan (2012–17) has set twenty-five monitorable targets in seven broad areas reflecting its (India’s) ‘vision of rapid, sustainable and more inclusive growth’: 101

Economic Growth

(i) Real GDP growth rate of 8 per cent.

(ii) Agriculture growth rate of 4.0 per cent.

(iii) Manufacturing growth rate of 10.0 per cent.

(iv) Every state must have an average growth rate in the Twelfth Plan preferably higher than that achieved in the Eleventh Plan.

Poverty and Employment

(v) Head-count ratio of consumption poverty to be reduced by 10 percentage points over the preceding estimates by the end of Twelfth Five Year Plan.

(vi) Generate 50 million new work opportunities in the non-farm sector and provide skill certification to equivalent numbers during the Twelfth Five Year Plan.

Education

(vii) Mean Years of Schooling to increase to seven years by the end of the Twelfth Five Year Plan.

(viii) Enhance access to higher education by creating two million additional seats for each age cohort aligned to the skill needs of the economy.

(ix) Eliminate gender and social gap in school enrolment (i.e., between girls and boys, and between SCs, STs, Muslims and the rest of the population) by the end of the Twelfth Five Year Plan.