One of the problems with India's 5-year Plans, according to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is that they "focused on outlining an attractive future, with not enough focus on what is needed to achieve it and the consequences of failing."

For the first time, the 12th Five-Year Plan that runs from 2012 to 2017 uses scenarios to reflect the implications of different types of policy behaviour.

A recent update of the macro-economic scenarios presented in the plan document by NCAER projects a less rosy picture. Read More

Jyothi Shankaran

    Jyothi’s last role was as Senior Editor with the business news channel Bloomberg TV India. He also worked as News Editor at business-standard.com, the online version of the business newspaper Business Standard. Jyothi is a chemical engineer from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar.