<P> The Twelfth Five - Year Plan of the Government of India has been decided to achieve a growth rate of 8.2% but the National Development Council (NDC) on 27 December 2012 approved a growth rate of 8% for the Twelfth Five - Year Plan . </P> <P> With the deteriorating global situation, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said that achieving an average growth rate of 9 percent in the next five years is not possible . The Final growth target has been set at 8% by the endorsement of the plan at the National Development Council meeting held in New Delhi . </P> <P> "It is not possible to think of an average of 9% (in the 12th plan). I think somewhere between 8 and 8.5 percent is feasible," Ahluwalia said on the sidelines of a conference of State Planning Boards and departments . The approached paper for the 12th Plan, approved last year, talked about an annual average growth rate of 9% . </P> <P> "When I say feasible...that will require major effort . If you don't do that, there is no God given right to grow at 8 percent . I think given that the world economy deteriorated very sharply over the last year...the growth rate in the first year of the 12th Plan (2012--13) is 6.5 to 7 percent ." </P>

When was the first five year plan started