Planning Commission finalized 21500 Crore Rupees Odisha Plan for 2013-14

The Annual Plan of 21500 crore rupees for the year 2013-14 for Odisha was finalised at New Delhi on 4 June 2013 by the Planning commission of India. The plan size was agreed upon during the meeting of the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik.

During the 12th Plan period, the state will have to make its efforts towards improving the basic amenities and address the problem of adverse child sex ratio. To improve on the infrastructure part both physical and social, the state will look forward towards the public private partnership.

Major highlights of Odisha’s Aim during 12th plan period
The state aims to give prominence to Social Inclusion through Empowerment of Minorities. To make this happen the steps to be undertaken by the state are
a) Increased allocation and optimum utilization of funds
b) Directly target minorities by revamp of the design, expansion of the scope and strengthening of implementation structures of key initiatives
c) Institutionalize robust monitoring
d) Each State Government needs to have a separate well-endowed Department for Minorities
• The state will look forward to improve quality of education, healthcare, and food security
• The state will create livelihood and employment opportunities and will look forward towards policy frame work to further strengthened investment climate to harness growth potential of the economy.

During the 11th Plan period Odisha improved largely on aspects of human development indicators and displayed satisfactory performance in sectors like agriculture. The overall literacy rate for Odisha is 73.45 percent against the national average of 74.04 percent in 2011.  Over a period of 10 years from 2001 to 2011, the gender gap in literacy has come down from 24.84 percentage points to 18.04 percentage points. Whereas, the state has also witnessed a fall in Infant Mortality Rate from 73 in 2006 to 57 in 2011 and maternal mortality rate from 303 during 2004-06 to 258 during 2007-09.

Some important facts about Odisha during the 11th Plan period
• Poverty has gone down to 57.2 percent in 2004-05 to 37 percent in 2009-10 (this is the highest reduction percentage among all States during the reference period).
• During 11th Plan period, the Primary and Revenue Deficits of the state also went down significantly with interest payments of revenue receipts ratio of 6.40 in 2011-12 from 14.43 in 2007-08.
• The state faces a gender gap in literacy of over 18%
• The state displayed an economic growth with a real annual average rate of 7.13 percent at 2004-05 prices during the 11th Plan period against the target of 9 percent.