NEW DELHI, Feb 4: Leading economists warned on Friday that India's dream economic march forwards may not be sustainable unless the benefits of globalisation reach all sectors of its billion-plus population.

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

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

"This contradiction between the very upbeat picture of India as a growing market economy and other dimensions relating to social indicators is absolutely an important one to resolve."

The three-day conference, which ends on Saturday, has been organized by leading non-governmental organization, the Tata Energy Research Institute. Mr 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.

"The real issue is, has everyone benefitted from India's globalisation?" asked World Bank India director Michale Carter. "The answer is no. How are we to ensure that a globalized India is increasingly inclusive? Unless we do that, India's growth will not be sustainable."

The IMF warned on Thursday that India's huge fiscal deficits and public debt were impeding the country's rapid economic growth. The Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in an annual review of the Indian economy that its large fiscal deficits and public debt "remain a key constraint on sustained rapid growth."

Without enhancing tax revenues and reducing lower-priority spending, it would be very difficult to adequately address India's large infrastructure needs, the IMF said.

The Fund also urged India to ease regulations and liberalize what it termed restrictive labor laws. Jairam Ramesh, economist and a Congress MP, called at the Delhi summit for more empowerment of local government organs.

"The local bodies should not be seen as the third tier of governance. They are the first tier of democracy," he said. "In China, some village councils have more powers than some of our states. This explains the progress made (by China) in health and primary education. We have glaring gaps in health and education," Mr Ramesh said. -AFP