NEED OF INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN INDIA: SOME JUSTIFICATIONS Puja Rani*, Deepak Kapur** INTRODUCTION The focus of the government in recent years has been shifted from promoting incredible India for building inclusive India. Inclusive growth needs to be achieved to reduce poverty, social and economic disparities, to sustain economic growth with equity, human development, equal distribution of income and wealth. The planning commission had made inclusive growth an explicit goal in the eleventh fve-year plan (2007-2012) and twelfth fve-year plan (2012-17). The 11 th fve-year plan proposed to raise the agriculture and GDP growth target of 9 per cent per annum to make growth more inclusive. The main objective of eleventh fve- year plan towards faster and inclusive growth, the broad vision, aspirations which the twelfth fve-year plan seeks to fulfl with the aim of faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth. The twelfth fve-year plan includes twenty-fve core indicators which are related to economic growth, poverty, unemployment, education, health, infrastructure, service delivery, environment and sustainability. The government has introduced various policies, programmes and social safety nets to achieve targets. According to the Human Development Report-2016, the public health expenditure (as percentage of GDP) is more than 8 per cent and 7 per cent in countries like Norway, United states, Germany, Japan and United Kingdom in 2014. On the other hand, the public expenditure on health is low at 1.4 per cent in India. The share of agriculture and allied sectors in GVA declined from 18.2 per cent in 2012-13 to 17.5 per cent in 2015-16 and 16.4 per cent in 2017-18 (1 st AE) at current prices but still accounts 54.6 per cent of total employment (Census 2011). The contribution of agriculture and allied sectors to the GVA of the country has been declining, the growth was -0.2 per cent in 2014-15 and 0.7 per cent in 2015-16, it declined from 4.9 per cent in 2016-17 to 2.1 per cent in 2017-18 (1 st AE). LITERATURE REVIEW Suman Kannoujia (2016) explored the problems relating to poverty, employment, agriculture, problems in social development, regional disparities and discussed challenges, suggested measures in achieving inclusive growth in India. She discussed inter-related elements of inclusive growth including poverty reduction, agriculture development, social sector development, poor quality delivery system, and malnutrition among children. She suggested some measures to achieve inclusive growth by enhancing investment in rural areas, rural infrastructure, and agriculture spurts in credit for farmers. The study also suggested that sharp increase in * Research Scholar, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. Email: pujaeco19@yahoo.com ** Chairperson, University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. Email: dkapur@pu.ac.in Abstract India needs inclusive growth to achieve the overall progress of the country and attain certain targets relating to poverty, employment, education, infrastructure, health, women and children, gender equality, regional equality etc. Inclusive growth is necessary to maintain growth with equity, achieving sustainable development, human development, raise economic growth, equal distribution of income and wealth. India ranks at low 100 among 119 countries with score of 31.4 on Global Hunger Index - 2017, place the country in the “Serious” hunger levels category. India ranks at 37th out of 103 countries in the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index - 2017 and accounts that 31 per cent of the world’s “Multidimensionally Poor” children live in India. It shows that a high economic growth is no guarantee of food and nutrition security. India has largest number of wasted, stunted, and malnourished children below fve years and facing a serious burden of under-nutrition. According to The Global Nutrition Report – 2017, 38 per cent of children under fve years are affected by stunting due to lack of nutrients, 21 per cent of children under fve years are “Wasted” or “Severely Wasted”, and 51 per cent of women of reproductive age suffer from anaemia. The government has made inclusive growth as a key element of eleventh and twelfth fve-year plans and introduced various policies, programmes and social safety nets to achieve targets. This paper studies need, policies and programmes for attaining inclusive growth in India. Keywords: Inclusive Growth, Poverty, Mortality, Education, Programmes JEL Codes Classifcation: I1, I2, I3, O15. Journal of Commerce & Accounting Research 8 (2) 2019, 72-78 http://publishingindia.com/jcar/