Previous Year Question

The Eleventh Five Year Plan covered the period from 2007 to 2012. Its central theme was Faster and More Inclusive Growth.

Inclusive Growth did not merely mean rapid growth in GDP. Its objective was to ensure that the opportunities and benefits of economic development reached the poor, women, rural communities, socially disadvantaged groups and backward regions.

Option (a) formed part of Inclusive Growth. Poverty reduction was a major objective of the Eleventh Plan. The Plan recognised that economic growth could be considered inclusive only when it directly improved the income and living standards of low-income households.

It emphasised wider access to rural employment, education, healthcare, drinking water, sanitation, housing and social protection for reducing poverty.

Option (b) formed part of Inclusive Growth. An increase in economic output alone was not considered sufficient; the Plan emphasised the creation of more and better-quality employment opportunities. Employment expansion outside agriculture, particularly in manufacturing, construction and services, was considered necessary.

Skill Development was also emphasised so that both educated and less-educated workers could benefit from the opportunities generated by economic growth.

Option (c) was not a direct component of Inclusive Growth. Strengthening the Capital Market can assist financial-sector development and mobilisation of resources, but it was not included among the principal social objectives of the Eleventh Plan’s Inclusive Growth Strategy.

Capital-market development may indirectly facilitate investment and economic growth, but it does not automatically eliminate poverty, gender inequality or employment deprivation.

Option (d) formed part of Inclusive Growth. The Eleventh Plan emphasised improvements in women’s education, health, nutrition, economic participation and role in decision-making. Reduction of Gender Inequality was an essential component of Inclusive Growth.

The Plan particularly focused on the following dimensions of inclusion:

• Reduction of poverty and income deprivation;

• Employment and livelihood opportunities;

• Equal access to education and healthcare;

• Gender Equality;

• Development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes;

• Reduction of rural-urban and inter-State inequalities.