Per Capita Income to double in nine years with current growth rate: Ahluwalia

NOIDA - Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Friday said with the current growth rate, the ‘Per Capita Income’ (PCI) of India will get doubled in nine years.

Ahluwalia, who was conferred Honorary Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D. Phil) by Amity University here, said the current task of the Planning Commission is to see whether during the 12th Plan period, the GDP growth rate of 9 or 10% can be achieved.

” Even if manage to keep 9 percent, which actually we have achieved before, and the population growth is now probably going to be less than 1.5 percent, PCI will grow at more than 7.5% or so. When PCI grows at 7.5 %, then it doubles in 9 years and if that were to continue, then it is easy to see that PCI will quadruple in 18 years and will increase 8 fold in 27 years,” said Ahluwalia, while addressing the graduates of Amity during “Convocation 2010″ at Amity Campus, Sector- 125, Noida.

“So, by the time you become senior people, you will run companies in a country, which will be at least 8 times richer PCI then it is today. It is actually a huge change and you have to cope with this change much faster. The products and technologies that will be demanded probably cannot be imagined today and I really advise you to be better aware of the fact that world is changing much faster and as you move forward the skills you have learnt now will have to be changed dramatically, so keep updating your skills,” he added.

The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission further said the future economic prospects of India at the moment look very good, but for this to continue and for the true potential of India to be realized it is extremely important that the scale of higher education should expand.

“In the Universities, at the moment, about 11% of each cohort goes through University education and this is roughly similar to China about ten years ago and China has managed, within ten years, to expand from 10% to 20%. We also want a similar expansion, which probably will take more than 10 years in our case by 2020 that at least 20% of our students of each cohort should end up getting some kind of higher education,” said Ahluwalia.

“In 1963, the economy was growing at a rate of 3.5 percent per year and continued for the next 15-16 years. When an economy grows at 3.5 percent in terms of GDP and the population growth is over two percent, which it was at that time, the Per Capita Income in such an economy is actually growing at less than 1.5 percent. When Per Capital Income grows at 1.5 percent, it takes 45 years for Per Capita Income (PCI) to double. I think, the doubling of PCI is very important; it is much more important than doubling of total GDP, then only the economy will change,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Ahluwalia further said change takes place, when the Per Capita Income changes.

“Change occurs when PCI changes, taste change, people demand different things, the structure of production changes, otherwise you don’t have an India that’s twice as rich, you just have an India that’s twice as large, so you have two Indias that’s not very interesting,” said Ahluwalia.

“You are graduating at a time when the average growth rate of economy for the last ten years is 7.7 percent, that is more than twice what was happening in 1963 but more importantly, the underline growth potential of this economy is much more than 7.7 percent,” he added in his address to the students.

Amity University has organized “Convocation 2010″ for three consecutive days- December 16, 17 and 18, 2010, wherein successfully qualified graduants from 49 institutions of Amity University, Uttar Pradesh will receive their much awaited Degrees and Diplomas.

Over 10, 000 UG and PG Degrees, Diplomas, Trophies and Medals will be conferred on graduants from several programmes during the three days

Conferring the degrees on the graduating students, Dr. Ashok. K. Chauhan - Founder President, Amity said that more than 95% of the men on earth live and die without any aim, mission or vision but Amitians are very fortunate because they know succinctly what is their mission and vision in lives.

Motivating and inspiring the alumni, Dr. Chauhan said: “Amity is a fraternity which unparallel in the entire world because of its dexterous students and their strong conviction and believe in human values.

During the Convocation, PhD degrees were awarded to seven scholars including Prof. Uttam Kr. Bagde (Doctor of Science); anisha Sharma (Doctor of Philosophy); Gitanjali Chauhan (Doctor of Philosophy), Neeraj Srivastav (Doctor of Philosophy), Jyoti Pandey (Doctor of Philosophy), Swati Tripathi (Doctor of Philosophy) and Aparajita Das (Doctor of Philosophy)

A large number of awards and medals were given to the meritorious graduants for bringing laurels to the university through their work and for contributing to the cause of development of their respective Institutions. Over 6 All Round Student Awards, 31 Gold Medals, 32 Silver Medals and 25 Bronze Medals were awarded to the graduants.

Corporate Awards were presented to the best performers of the institutes including “EMC Technopreneurial Excellence Award” comprising of Rs. 25, 000 cash was given to Mr. Pratyush Agnihotri from B. Tech- Computer Science and Engineering.

Justice Markandey Katju of the Supreme Court of India will be conferred Honorary Doctorate Degree of Law by Amity University on Saturday. (ANI)