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PM sees reforms benefiting poor

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the economic reforms initiated by him almost two decades ago had reduced the number of poor, though much more was still needed to be done.

“There is no evidence that the new economic policies have had an adverse effect on the poor,” Singh said at the annual conference of the Indian Economic Association here today.

“The percentage of population below the poverty line has certainly not increased. In fact, it has continued to decline after the economic reforms, at least at the same rate as it did before,” he said.

Singh, however, admitted that the decline should have been faster. Reforms were introduced during Singh’s tenure as finance minister in Narasimha Rao’s Congress government in 1991-96.

“There is no doubt in my view that poverty remains a major challenge. Our poor are still too poor and we need to do much more to improve their standards of living,” Singh said, highlighting the need for rapid economic growth to create job opportunities at a rate faster than the expansion of labour force.

According to the Prime Minister, greater attention should be paid to education, healthcare and rural development, particularly the needs of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities, to achieve the objective of inclusive growth as charted out in the Eleventh Plan.

An efficient use of scarce natural resources such as land and water, increasing agricultural productivity and systematic efforts to help small industries in mobilising resources for growth were also necessary for a sustained expansion.

On the impact of reforms, Singh said an average growth rate of 8.5 per cent had been achieved between 2004-05 and 2009-10. The momentum was interrupted by the global economic crisis in 2008, and growth slowed to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09. However, the economy was likely to achieve growth at a little over 7 per cent in 2009-10. Besides, there was no balance of payments crisis since 1991.

On climate change, the Prime Minister said the problem could be resolved if all the countries reached a mutually satisfactory solution.

Pointing out that sustainable development was intimately linked with energy efficiency and energy security, he said it also posed complex problems of global equity in burden sharing.

“Economists have much to contribute to our understanding of complexities involved and finding constructive solutions,” he said.

Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik said about 5 per cent of the country’s poor were in Orissa, while there was a large population (38.66 per cent) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

He said the state government had been trying to improve its fiscal health and plan performance and create an investor-friendly environment. “Our efforts have yielded some very positive results with the state achieving an annual average growth rate of 9.15 per cent during the Tenth Plan.”