The target for industrial growth in the Ninth Plan was set at 8.2 per cent. The major focus of the plan was on the building of adequate infrastructural facilities and also improving the ‘quality’ infrastructure. To promote foreign direct investment, the plan proposed to increase the number of industries in which automatic approval would be granted. Special steps were envisaged to encourage industries in backward areas.
It aimed to ‘priorities’ the efforts on the large number of Growth Centers under implementation so that maximum benefits can be obtained from the investments in these centers in the shortest possible time. The Plan advocated a number of steps for the industrial development of the North Eastern Region.
The plan divided Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) into three categories:
(i) Profit making PSEs,
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(ii) PSEs making only marginal profits or losses, and
(iii) PSEs incurring substantial losses. The Government categorised PSEs as Navratnas and 97 as Miniratnas amongst the first category which will be provided increased financial and managerial autonomy. The second category of PSEs would be provided limited budgetary support and assistance to enable them to stand on their own feet. The Plan advocated for taking ‘hard decisions’ in case of third category of PSEs.
In the field of small-scale industries, the Ninth Plan advocates dereservation. This will help a number of small scale units to upgrade their technology, improve the quality of their products, expand the scale of their operations, and boost their exports. Since the biggest problem facing the small-scale industries is the inadequate availability of credit, the Plan proposed a number of steps to mitigate this problem.