PLANNING IN INDIA:PART-I

Ø Father of Indian Planning: M. Visvesvaraya

Ø The first attempt to initiate economic planning in India was made by Sir M. Visvesvaraya, a noted engineer and politician, in 1934 through his book, Planned Economy for India.

Ø In 1944, 'Bombay Plan' was presented by 8 leading industrialists of Bombay.

Ø In 1945, 'People's Plan' was given by MN Roy.

Ø In 1950, 'Sarvodaya Plan' was given by JP Narayan. A few points of this plan were accepted by the Government.

Ø The concept of the planning is based on the Russian model initiated by Joseph Stalin.

Ø The Planning Commission was set up in 1950 with Jawaharlal Nehru as its first Chairman.The Planning Commission is only an advisory body according to the 39th article of the Constitution.

Ø The National Development Council (NDC) was set up on August 6, 1952. It gives final approval to plans in India. The Prime Minister is its chairman. All the Chief Ministers of the States, Lt. Governors of Union Territories, all Union Cabinet Ministers and other Planning Commission members are its members.

 

Summary: Five Year Plans in India:1^st to 11^th

First Plan (1951 - 56)	It was based on Harrod-Domar Model.
	Community Development Program launched in 1952
	Focus on agriculture, price stability, power and transport
	It was a successful plan primarily because of good harvests in the last two years of the plan
Second Plan (1956 - 61) Target Growth: 4.5% Actual Growth: 4.27%	Also called Mahalanobis Plan named after the well known economist
	Focus - rapid industrialization
	Advocated huge imports through foreign loans.
	Shifted basic emphasis from agriculture to industry far too soon.
	During this plan, prices increased by 30%, against a decline of 13% during the First Plan
Third Plan (1961 - 66) |Target Growth: 5.6% Actual Growth: 2.84%	At its conception, it was felt that Indian economy has entered a take-off stage. Therefore, its aim was to make India a 'self-reliant' and 'self-generating' economy.
	Based on the experience of first two plans, agriculture was given top priority to support the exports and industry.
	Complete failure in reaching the targets due to unforeseen events - Chinese aggression (1962), Indo-Pak war (1965), severe drought 1965-66
Three Annual Plans (1966-69) Plan holiday for 3years.	Prevailing crisis in agriculture and serious food shortage necessitated the emphasis on agriculture during the Annual Plans
	During these plans a whole new agricultural strategy was implemented. It involving wide-spread distribution of high-yielding varieties of seeds, extensive use of fertilizers, exploitation of irrigation potential and soil conservation.
	During the Annual Plans, the economy absorbed the shocks generated during the Third Plan
	It paved the path for the planned growth ahead.
Fourth Plan (1969 - 74) Target Growth: 5.7% Actual Growth: 3.30%	Main emphasis was on growth rate of agriculture to enable other sectors to move forward
	First two years of the plan saw record production. The last three years did not measure up due to poor monsoon.
	Influx of Bangladeshi refugees before and after 1971 Indo-Pak war was an important issue
Fifth Plan (1974-79) Target Growth: 4.4% Actual Growth: 3.8	The fifth plan was prepared and launched by D.D. Dhar.
	It proposed to achieve two main objectives: 'removal of poverty' (Garibi Hatao) and 'attainment of self reliance'
	Promotion of high rate of growth, better distribution of income and significant growth in the domestic rate of savings were seen as key instruments
	The plan was terminated in 1978 (instead of 1979) when Janta Party Govt. rose to power.
Rolling Plan (1978 - 80)	There were 2 Sixth Plans. Janta Govt. put forward a plan for 1978-1983. However, the government lasted for only 2 years. Congress Govt. returned to power in 1980 and launched a different plan.
Sixth Plan (1980 - 85) Target Growth: 5.2% Actual Growth: 5.66%	Focus - Increase in national income, modernization of technology, ensuring continuous decrease in poverty and unemployment, population control through family planning, etc.
Seventh Plan (1985 - 90) Target Growth: 5.0% Actual Growth: 6.01%	Focus - rapid growth in food-grains production, increased employment opportunities and productivity within the framework of basic tenants of planning.
	The plan was very successful, the economy recorded 6% growth rate against the targeted 5%.
Eighth Plan (1992 - 97)	The eighth plan was postponed by two years because of political uncertainty at the Centre
	Worsening Balance of Payment position and inflation during 1990-91 were the key issues during the launch of the plan.
	The plan undertook drastic policy measures to combat the bad economic situation and to undertake an annual average growth of 5.6%
	Some of the main economic outcomes during eighth plan period were rapid economic growth, high growth of agriculture and allied sector, and manufacturing sector, growth in exports and imports, improvement in trade and current account deficit.
Ninth Plan (1997- 2002) Target Growth: 6.5% Actual Growth: 5.35%	It was developed in the context of four important dimensions: Quality of life, generation of productive employment, regional balance and self-reliance.
Tenth Plan (2002 - 2007)	Goals:
	To achieve 8% GDP growth rate
	Reduction of poverty ratio by 5 percentage points by 2007.
	Providing gainful high quality employment to the addition to the labour force over the tenth plan period.
	Universal access to primary education by 2007.
	Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by atleast 50% by 2007.
	Reduction in decadal rate of population growth between 2001 and 2011 to 16.2%.
	Increase in literacy rate to 72% within the plan period and to 80% by 2012.
	Reduction of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) to 45 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 28 by 2012.
	Increase in forest and tree cover to 25% by 2007 and 33% by 2012.
	All villages to have sustained access to potable drinking water by 2012.
	Cleaning of all major polluted rivers by 2007 and other notified stretches by 2012.
Eleventh Plan (2007 - 2012)	Goals:
	Accelerate GDP growth from 8% to 10%. Increase agricultural GDP growth rate to 4% per year.
	Create 70 million new work opportunities and reduce educated unemployment to below 5%.
	Raise real wage rate of unskilled workers by 20 percent.
	Reduce dropout rates of children from elementary school from 52.2% in 2003-04 to 20% by 2011-12. Increase literacy rate for persons of age 7 years or above to 85%.
	Lower gender gap in literacy to 10 percentage point. Increase the percentage of each cohort going to higher education from the present 10% to 15%.
	Reduce infant mortality rate to 28 and maternal mortality ratio to 1 per 1000 live births
	Reduce Total Fertility Rate to 2.1
	Provide clean drinking water for all by 2009. Reduce malnutrition among children between 0-3 years to half its present level. Reduce anaemia among women and girls by 50%.
	Raise the sex ratio for age group 0-6 to 935 by 2011-12 and to 950 by 2016-17
	Ensure that at least 33 percent of the direct and indirect beneficiaries of all government schemes are women and girl children
	Ensure all-weather road connection to all habitation with population 1000 and above (500 in hilly and tribal areas) by 2009, and ensure coverage of all significant habitation by 2015
	Connect every village by telephone by November 2007 and provide broadband connectivity to all villages by 2012
	Increase forest and tree cover by 5 percentage points.
	Attain WHO standards of air quality in all major cities by 2011-12.
	Treat all urban waste water by 2011-12 to clean river waters.
	Increase energy efficiency by 20 percentage points by 2016-17.