Union Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu chairs a meeting on Role of Districts in Economic Growth

Union Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Minister, Suresh Prabhu today chaired a meeting for brainstorming and creating an action plan on role of districts in economic growth of the country. The aim of the meeting was to prepare an action plan to increase the growth rate at the district level by 3-4% per annum by accelerating economic activities. Larger aim of this initiative is to help India become a USD 5 trillion economy.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister said that to push growth further, a bottom-up approach is required. Therefore, districts need to be considered as planning and execution units, facilitating change at micro level.  In order to achieve this aim, few districts including Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Varanasi and Vishakhapatnam, across different states will be selected in phase 1 of the pilot project. Profile of the districts will be created, identifying strengths and local resources, so as to incorporate it with different sectors and verticals. Efforts will be made to converge government and private initiatives and introduce mechanism for handholding and mentoring. The Minister directed the officials to create an Action Plan in this regard at the earliest.

Representative from different Ministries including Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, MSME, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Statistics & Program Implementation along with NITI Aayog, Department of Economic Affairs and representatives of States of Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were present.

District-led economic growth: pilot districts to adopt bottom-up action plans boosting local economic activity and coordination. An initiative to raise district-level growth by 3-4% annually using a bottom-up planning framework that designates districts as planning and execution units, selects pilot districts to prepare profiles of strengths and local resources, integrates those profiles across sectors, converges government and private initiatives, and establishes handholding and mentoring mechanisms through inter-ministerial and state coordination to prepare an Action Plan promptly.