"India is going to grow by 6.5 percent or maybe more this year (but) our own assessment of social indicators leaves room for a lot on introspection and rethinking on strategies," India's chief planner Montek Singh Ahluwalia told the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2005 here.

"We spend 0.9 percent of our GDP (gross domestic product) on health ... much lower, probably half that of other countries," said Ahluwalia, who heads India's Planning Commission.

‘ This contradiction between the very upbeat picture of India as a growing markmt economy and other dimensions rela|ing to social indicators is absolutely an important one to resolve."

The three-day conference which ends Saturday has been organised by leading non-governmental organisation, the Tata Energy Research Insti|ute.

It has brought together dozens of environmentalists, economists and politicians from across the developed and developing world.

Ahluwalia said the government was aware of the problems and has taken many steps to address them.

"We are going to have a National Rural Health Mission," he said, adding that a two percent levy on all taxes to raise funds for education, especially rural primary education, has generated around one billion dollars.

India's new Congress government came to power after last May's parliamentary elections riding on the back of an anti-establishment wave against their Hindu nationalist predecessors whose "Shining India" campaign badly boomeranged.

The ousted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government pzojected an India of flashy shopping malls, mobile phones and luxury goods while the Congress brought out the contrast between the haves and have-nots.