Plans in India: At a Glance

FIRST PLAN 1951-56

The First Plan with a total outlay of Rs.2378 crore was a rather hapzard venture,as the planning commission had no reliable statistics to work upon.Besides ,the plan had to be correlated to the prevailing activities of various government departments.the result was a patchwork of isolated projects.All the same,the plan had a national character and was based on a rational hypothesis.it laid emphasis on Agriculture,Irrigation,Power and Transport so as to provide an infrastructure for rapid industrial expansion in future.The plan turned out to be more than a sucess,mainly because it was supported by two good harvests in the last two years.

SECOND PLAN 1956-61

The second plan a big leap forward.it laid special stress on heavy industries.The industrial policy resolution was amended so as to shift the primary responsibility for development on the public sector.private sector was left to handle consumer industries.But the great quantity of imports that the plan envisaged in both public and private sectors,practically denuded india's are accumulated sterling balances in two years and compelled the country to seek extensive foreign aid.Agriculture and Small scale industries remained sluggish,without adding any momentum to development.

THIRD PLAN 1961-66

The third plan rode on a wave of high expectations following over all growth of the indian economy in the first two plan periods.The third plan aimed at establishing a self sustaining economy.Internal resources having been strained to the utmost,the plan had to rely on heavy foreign aid.
Interim Planning
The Third Plan having gone awry,planning itself had become discredited in the eyes of many and demands were made from different quarters to declare a plan holiday.But neither the government nor the planning commission admitted failure.They refused to fail in with the demand for a plan holiday and proceeded to draw up the fourth plan as from 1966-67.

FOURTH PLAN 1969-74

The Fourth Plan officially commenced on April 1,1969 with the publication of the draft
plan .Growth with stability was the main objective of the plan.Agriculture was expected to lead the growth with a rate of 5 percent per annum.such a growth in agriculture would setup a chain reaction in the economy.The target for the growth rate of industry was set at about 9 percent per annum.Altogether the national income was expected to increase of 5.5 percent per annum.Allowing for the increase of population at the rate of 3 percent per annum or about 16 percent in the fourth plan period.

FIFTH PLAN 1974-79

The Fifth plan draft as originally drawn up was part of a long term perspective plan covering a period of 10 years from 1974.75 to 1985-86.The perspective plan attempted to co ordinate various sectors of the economy in terms of the new slogan GARIBI HATAO.The long term rate of growth which the economy was expected to acheive on a self sustaining basis was put up at 6.2 percent per annum.
By the time the fifth plan was approved by the National Development Council its promises had become obsolete and the total outlay had to be increased from Rs. 37.463 crore to 39.303 Crore.This belated attempt had an inglorious end in another 6 month.when the janta party came into power.They scrapped it unceremoniously.


SIXTH PLAN 1980-81 & 1984-85

Sixth plan was formulated after taking into account the acheivements and shortcomings of the past three decades of planning.For the sixth plan actual expenditure stood at Rs. 10291.7 Crore as against the envisaged total public sector outlay of Rs. 97500 Crore accounting for a 12 percent increase in nominal terms.The average annual growth rate the sixth plan worked out to 5.2 percent,which is equal to the targeted growth for the plan.

SEVENTH PLAN 1985-90

seventh plan which envisaged an aggregate outlay of Rs. 348,148 Crore with a public sector outlay of Rs. 180,000 Crore ended with the average rate of growth of the gross domestic product at 5.3 percent per annum,which was well above the targeted rate of 5 percent.


EIGHTH PLAN 1992-97

The eighth plan recognised the need for a re orientation of planning in keeping with the process of economy.thougha tangible change in the ongoing development process can be effected only over a period of time,the review of initial experience enables us to discern the direction of change and emerging criticalities with a view to identifying the measure to be adopted.
The eighth plan emphasis
1.Human development as the main focus of planning
2.a large economic apace for the private sector.
3.physical and social infrastructure development by the public sector
4.a greater role to the market to infuse economic efficiency even in the working of public sector

The plan proposed a growth rate of 5.6% per annum on the average during the plan period.An investment of Rs. 798,000 Crores(45%).adding to this current outlay of Rs. 73,000 Crores.consistent with the resources position,the size of the plans of the states and the union territories was projected at Rs. 1,86,325 Crore and the central plan at Rs.2,47,865 Crore.This outlay was divided between the centre and the states in the ratio 58.5:41.5 .

NINTH PLAN 1997-2002

The objective of the 9th plan evolved from the common minimum programme of the governmant and the cheif minister's conference on basic minimum services.The suggestions are as a follows:
1.priority to agriculture and rural development with a view to generating productive employment & eradication of poverty
2.Accelerating the growth rate of the economy with stable prices
3.Ensuring food and nutritional security for the vulnerable section of the society
4.Providing the basic minimum services of safe drinking water,primary health care facilities,universal primary education,shelter and connectivity to all in a time bound population
5.containing the growth rate of population
6.Ensuring enviornmental sustainability of the development process through participation of people.
7.Empowerment of women and socially disadvantaged groups
8.promoting and developing panchayati raj,co operative etc;
9.Strengthening efforts to build self reliance.

GDP:6.2
Export Growth Rate(% per annum):12
Import Growth Rate(% per annum):11.4
Domestic saving rate(% of GDP at market price):25.2
current Account Deficit(% of GDP at market price):1.7
Investment Rate(%GDP at market price):26.9
ICOR(%):4.34
Gross Investment:Rs.2004 Crore
According to rough calculations,the ninthplan size will be Rs.8,80,00 Crore.

THE OBJECTIVES OF TENTH PLAN 2002-2007

The total size of 10th plan is Rs. 25737.25 Crore at current prices as against the 9th plan approved outlay of Rs. 20075.00 crore.These figures are not comparable as the State of MP was bifurcated on 1st Nov 200.The planning commision indicated that the size of the tenth plan may be 5.5 times that of the budgetary support provided to the annual plan of 2001-2002 in nominal terms.However,the proposed size of the 10th is 7 times that of the approved outlay of the annual plan 2001-2002.
The sectoral outlays for the ninth plan and the tenth plan are presented in the table now.
HIGHLIGHTS OF 10th PLAN :2002-2007
* Annual 8 %GDP growth during 2002-07
* Annual FDI flows of 7.5 billion US dollars
* Divestment target of Rs 78,000 Crore in five years
* 50 million jobs in five years
* Public sector outlay at Rs.15,92,300 Crore
* Central plan outlay at Rs.9,21,291 Crore
* States and outlay at Rs. 6,71,009 Crore
* Central Budgetary support at Rs.7,06,000 Crore
* Incremental capital output ratio at 3.6%
* Reduction in poverty ratio to 21 % from 26 % by 2007
* Literacy rate to increase to 75% by 2007
* IMF to be reduced to 45 in 2007
* Maternal mortality ratio to be halved 2 in 2007
* Increase in forest cover to 25 % in 2007
* Potable drinking water in all villages
* cleaning of major polluted river stretches
* Decadal population growth to reduce from 21.3 % in 1991-2001 to 16.2 % in 2001-2011
* All children in school by 2003 and all children to complete 5 year schooling in 2007
* Investment rate of 28.4 % of GDP

IMPORATANT POINTS

$ The ThirdPlan was the first plan to target a 5% growth rate was minimum during this plan.
$ The Sixth Plan acheived for first time a growth rate of more than 5% .
$ In the earlier plans,importance was given to development programmes in the agricultural sector.
$ In the later plans,greater emphasis is laid on the industrial and power sectors of the economy.