Annual Report 1990-91

Abstract

The year 1990-91 was the threshold year for the banning of a new Five Year Plan. The Seventh Plan, which ended in the previous year, provided a promising backdrop for the formulation of a new plan. The overall performance of the economy during the Seventh Plan had been impressive with an average annual growth rate (of GDP at factor cost) of 5.6% as against the target of 5 per cent. Agriculture, despite a run of poor monsoons in the first, three years of the Plan, picked up in the remaining two years. Overall industrial production maintained the pace of growth of earlier years. The performance of the infrastructural sector also contributed to the success of the Seventh Plan. In addition, qualitative aspects of life also improved. ThjiJ number of poor as a percentage of total population was brought down to per cent in 1987-88 from 37 per cent in 1983-84. The enrolment figures at" primary and upper primary stages had reached 9.89 crores and 3.25 crores respectively