'India aims to put economy on 7 to 8 percent growth path'

India's new government will aim to put Asia's third-largest economy on a 7-8 percent annual growth path and continue reforms to help millions of poor, the deputy head of the national planning commission said on Saturday.
"If we want employment, if living standards are to be improved then the Common Minimum Program's target of 7-8 percent growth is absolutely essential and it is definitely achievable, Montek Singh Alhuwalia told reporters.
The government, in its roadmap known as the Common Minimum Programme, has pledged to push reforms with a human face that would take care of country's farmers and the poor who make up majority of India's billion-plus population.
It has promised an eight-fold rise in health and education spending to nine percent of gross domestic product, aimed at poor people who feel excluded from India's economic boom and who voted out the previous Hindu nationalist-led government.
"The commission will try to put in place policies which I think should meet the expectations of most people including the legitimate concern that the reforms should not be seen to be only for the rich or a small section of the society," said Alhuwalia.
Alhuwalia, who was serving with the International Monetary Fund before taking up the new job, was part of the team headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which launched free market reforms in 1991, when Singh was finance minister.
Analysts said his appointment was an effort to calm investor sentiment, which dipped on fears of slowdown in reforms after the Congress-led coalition took power with crucial support from communist parties.
The new government's first test will be the July 8 budget where it will have to balance its promises to boost growth and step up spending in key social sectors with taking care not to widen the fiscal deficit.
The Indian economy, Asia's third-largest, is estimated to have grown more than 10 percent in the October-December quarter thanks to the best monsoons in a decade, which boosted the farm sector and triggered a spending boom.