- National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme - a great relief to common people
- Right To information Act
- Loan Waver for Rs 60,000 Crores for Farmers
- Chandrayan-India Joined Elite Club
- Railway in Huge profit
- Anti Balistic Missile Sys developed
- Brahmos Missile-the fastest in world
- Agricultural Growth Improved
- Defense Strategies Re-alligned with US
- Emerged as the 2nd fastest growing Economy
- More IITs
- Infrastructure growth prioritized
- Kashmir, no more inefficiencies as in Kargil, No more Coffin Biz, BJP's attempt to isolate Kashmir foiled
- Metro rails
- Pay Increment for central government employees
CMP Commitment
The UPA government claims it had taken action on "almost all 142 items" of significance in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), its agenda of governance. The CMP's chief focus was on employment, agriculture, health, education, women and children, national security, foreign policy, food, Panchayati Raj, social harmony, minorities, water resources, regional development, among others.
Its most notable achievement includes inflation control and maintaining a tight regulatory environment which prevented domestic institutions from falling prey to global financial woes.
Rising crude and global commodity prices saw inflation bordering around 12%. But a number of policy measures ensured that prices remain under control and the aam aadmi does not suffer.
A number of subsidies announced last year helped keep prices of food, fertiliser, and petroleum low. "The consequences of that in a normal year might have been rather unpleasant but this hasn’t been a normal year."
The CMP promised an increase in investment for agriculture, which has been in the throes of a crisis. The government promised that immediate steps would be taken to ease the burden of debt and high interest rates on farm loans. In last year's Budget, the government announced a Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver scheme.
The UPA's CMP included a National Employment Guarantee Act to provide at least 100 days of employment for at least one able-bodied person in every rural, urban, poor, and middle-class household. The Act is now functional across India.
It also pledged to raise public spending in education to at least 6% of GDP with at least half this amount being spent on primary and secondary sectors. This was its stance on education. At last count, the UPA government's investment in education stood at 3.5% of GDP.
A number of these steps have resulted in a growth slowdown. The EAC has projected a much slower pace of growth for the current fiscal. The economy is expected to expand by 7.7%, down from last year’s 9.1%, and lower than the earlier projections made by the government and RBI of around 8-8.5%.
However, external factors like global economic deceleration, tightening credit, falling equity markets, and the regressive effects of commodity price-led inflation are also to be blamed for slowdown in economic growth.
Year GDP
2004-05 7.5
2005-06 9.4
2006-07 9.6
2007-08 8.7
There were also a number of areas like health, education, rural employment and agriculture on which it promised but has under delivered.
A report filed a civil society review of CMP implementation (called the People's Verdict) alleged that the promised increase in budgetary allocations to health by 2-3% of GDP has not been met.
The report said spending on health by the Centre is stagnant from 2003-04 onwards. "The present UPA government promised to spend 3% of GDP on health but after four years, the total spending is hovering around 1% of GDP," the document claimed.
Referring to the CMP proposal to spend 6% of GDP on education with at least half the amount being earmarked for primary and secondary sectors, the report said the combined outlay for the education departments of the Centre and states remain at a "meagre 2.84% of GDP" in 2007-08.
