from addressing the issue of inequality, the inclusive growth may also make the poverty reduction efforts more effective by explicitly creating productive economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. the inclusive growth by encompassing the hitherto excluded population can bring in several other benefits as well to the economy. the concept “ inclusion ” should be seen as a process of including the excluded as agents whose participation is essential in the very design of the development process, and not simply as welfare targets of development programmes ( planning commission, 2007 ). 1 the eleventh five year plan ( 2007 - 12 ) envisions inclusive growth as a key objective. the plan document notes that the economic growth has failed to be sufficiently inclusive particularly after the mid - 1990s. the indian economy, though achieved a high growth momentum during 2003 - 04 to 2007 - 08, could not bring down unemployment and poverty to tolerable levels. further, a vast majority of the population remained outside the ambit of basic health and education facilities during this high growth phase. in recent decades, economic and social inequalities have increased alongside high growth rates which have exacerbated towards inclusive growth : the gender dimension, planning commission, november 15, 2007. regional inequalities. the latest seventh quinquennial survey by the national sample survey organisation ( nsso ) ( 61st round ) reveals that growth rate of employment increased from an annual 0. 98 per cent in the period 1993 - 94 to 1999 - 00 to 2. 89 per cent in the period 19992000 to 2004 - 05, while the acceleration in the rate of growth of labour force from 1. 03 per cent to 2. 93 per cent during same period had negative impact on employment rate ( table 1 ). similarly, poverty ratio has been declining during the recent period, but it continues to remain at a very high level of 27. 5 per cent ( uniform recall period ) in 2004 - 05 from 36. 0 per cent in 1993 - 94. the most disturbing fact is that the income inequality as commonly measured by consumption expenditure ( gini coefficient ) has increased in india from 32. 9 in 1993 to 36. 2 in 2004 ( ali, i. and j. zhuang : 2007 ). this made “ inclusive growth ” the focal point of growth strategy and major concern for the policymakers in india. thus, the eleventh plan document tries to restructure the policies in order to make the growth faster, broad - based and inclusive by reducing the

economic development in our country and as in the case for most developing countries, extending the banking services to everyone in the country will be the key driver towards an inclusive growth. thank you. references : 1. reserve bank of india ( 2008 ), report on currency and finance 2006 - 08. 2. reserve bank of india ( 2009 ), “ 100 per cent financial inclusion – evaluation by external agencies broad findings ”, circular dated january 22. 3. government of india ( 2006 ) : report of the working group on savings eleventh five year plan, planning commission, december 4. government of india ( 2007 ), eleventh five year plan document, planning commission. 5. government of india ( 2008 ), the committee on financial inclusion ( chairman : c. rangarajan ) 6. government of india ( 2008 ), poverty eradication in india by 2015, mord, november 7. government of india ( 2009 ) the report of the committee on credit related issues under sgsy, february 8. purushotham, p. ( 2008 ), institutional credit for rural livelihoods : a study of sgsy in the regions of high poverty, nird, 9. rangarajan, c., padma iyer kaul, and seema ( 2007 ), “ revisiting employment and growth ”, money and finance, september. 10. ali, i. and j. zhuang ( 2007 ) : “ inclusive growth towards a prosperous asia : policy implications ”, erd working paper series no. 97, asian development bank. 11. mohan, r. ( 2007 ) : “ india's financial sector reforms : fostering growth while containing risk ”, address at yale university on december 3. 12. mohan, r. ( 2006 ) : “ economic growth, financial deepening and financial inclusion address at the annual bankers ” conference 2006, at hyderabad on nov 3, 2006. 13. thorat, u. ( 2008 ) : inclusive growth – the role of banks in emerging economies, lecture delivered at “ independence commemoration lecture, 2008 ” at the central bank of sri lanka, colombo, 28 february. 14. thorat, u. ( 2008 ) : financial inclusion and information technology, delivered at wipro - ndtv convergence conference on “ vision 2020 - indian financial services sector ”. this bis review is available on the bis website at www. bis. org.