Ranchi, Aug. 7: The state of Jharkhand will get plan assistance of Rs 163 billion for fiscal 2012-13, this was finalized in a meeting between Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Arjun Munda.

Commenting on state's plan performance Ahluwalia said the State has been performing well and achievements are at expected levels.

For 12th Five Year Plan the focus should be on catching up with the rest of country in human development indices while continuing efforts to create investment friendly environment, added Ahluwalia.

Expressing satisfaction over the improvement made in literacy rate in Jharkhand, which improved from 54.13% in 2001 to 67.63% in 2011, the Planning Commission noted that it is still lower than the all India Literacy Rate of 74.04% in 2011.

However, the gender gap of 27.31% is still a big worry. Commission congratulated the State Government for achieving highest growth rate in agriculture during 11th plan period.

The overall GSDP growth rate of Jharkhand reached at the peak level of 20.5% in 2007-08 which turned negative at -1.7% in 2008-09 and subsequently improved to 5.0% and 6.0% respectively in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

The growth of agriculture sector was 5.6% in 2007-08 and which significantly improved to 16% in 2008-09 but again came down to 1.8% in 2009-10. The growth rate of agriculture sector however improved to 7.7% in 2010-11.

Similarly the growth rate of industry sector was very high at 44.7% in 2007-08 which suddenly dipped to -2.4% in 2008-09 and also remained at low level of 0.8% in 2009-10 and -0.1% in 2010-11.

The growth of service sector has been good compared to the Primary and Secondary sectors. The growth rate of the services sector was 12.3%, 8.8%, 9.7% and 9.9% respectively in 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

The Per Capita income of Jharkhand at 1999-2000 (constant) prices increased from Rs 15303 in 2007-08 to Rs 16294 in 2008-09 but was still lower than the all India per capita income of Rs 25494 in 2008-09.

The Per Capita Net State Domestic Product of Jharkhand was Rs22,902 in 2011-12 compared to Rs 38,005 All India Per Capita NDP.

Munda said the focus of development would be on making benefits reach deprived section of the society. With this objective, emphasis would be on infrastructure development with private participation and added efforts on reducing gaps in health care and education.

He said the State would pursue an ambitious plan of 10 per cent growth in the 12th plan in order to double per capita income by 2016-17. Agriculture growth would be targeted at 6.5 % while industrial growth would be 12.5%. The State would aim at creating 2.12 million additional jobs.