The Hindu Business Line : TN launches `equitable growth initiative'

THE Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, today launched the Tamil Nadu Equitable Growth Initiative, a consultative approach to chalk out strategies for high economic growth while addressing development issues to support the needy.

Under the initiative the State Government has constituted six core groups that will look at employment generation, agriculture productivity, public-private partnership for infrastructure development, human development, including health and education, efficiency in public service delivery and prudent financial management.

The World Bank is a partner in this initiative. It offers its global expertise in addressing economic and development issues. The World Bank staff will be a part of the team in the core groups.

The approach is new in that it seeks to create a structure that will enable the public, Government and experts in any field to work together.

Ms Jayalalithaa said that the initiative is a new framework for development policy planning that provides opportunities for public discussion on development challenges. Over the next 9-12 months the core groups will work out possible solutions in consultation with citizens and experts for consideration and adoption by the Government.

Dr V.S. Arunachalam, Vice-Chairman, State Planning Commission, said the key issues in development and delivery of public services were addressing the supply chain, transaction costs and the complexity. These have an impact on efficiency and delivery of public services. Administration should go for a decentralised approach to include ground level bodies such as the panchayats. Transaction costs should be minimised but often apart from the necessary costs there were unnecessary and sometimes even illegal costs. Subsidies should also be targeted to the needy, he said.

Technology is crucial for development. Information and communication technology should not just be for application in software companies and industries but in every village, he said.

Mr Michael F. Carter, Country Director, World Bank, enumerated the areas that the World Bank sees as key to growth. These were: reversing the sluggishness in agriculture; promoting small and medium enterprises by addressing financial and regulatory constraints and increase incentives for investments by private sector; create match between education and the skills the industry is looking for; increase quality of jobs and benefits for workers, address shortcomings in targeting subsidies; strengthen public finance management; increase quality of public service delivery; strengthen service orientation of government officials; and target those outside the mainstream of development such as the unorganised sector, rural women and the physically challenged.

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