India's Five Year Plans, Duration, Priority Sectors and History

Five Year Plans of India

A large part of India's economy is based on five-year plans developed, implemented and overseen by the Planning Commission of India. In addition to the ex-officio Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Prime Minister, there is also a nominated Deputy Chairman of the Commission, whose rank is equivalent to that of a cabinet minister . Montek Singh Ahluwalia was the last vice-chairman of the commission (resigned on 26 May 2014). The tenure of the Twelfth Plan was completed in March 2017. Prior to the Fourth Plan, the allocation of state resources was based on a planned pattern rather than a transparent and objective mechanism, which led to the adoption of the Gadgil Formula in 1969.

The 12th five year plan is being continued by the government under the scheme. In 1951 the first five year plan was started in India and in 2017 the 12th five year plan took place. After this, the Modi government has stopped making these schemes.

History of Five Year Plans of India:

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India after independence, carried forward the socialist economic model. Jawaharlal Nehru took many important economic decisions, including the beginning of the Five Year Plan. In 1951, the foundation of the first five-year plan was laid and the Planning Commission was formed.

Jawaharlal Nehru presented the first five-year plan in Parliament on December 8, 1951, and he set a target of 2.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at that time.

List of Five Year Five Year Plans of India:

First Five Year Plan (1951-1956)

Main objectives of the first five year plan:

• Resettlement of refugees.
• 3. Attaining self-sufficiency in food grains in the shortest possible period and controlling inflation.
• Along with this, the process of all-round development was started in this plan, so that the continuous increase of national income can be assured.
• Agriculture was given priority in this plan.
• The foundation of five steel plants was laid during this five year plan. In most of the five year plans one or the other sector was given priority.

Second Five Year Plan (1956-1961)

Main goals of the second five year plan:

• Domestic production of industrial products, especially heavy industry, was encouraged in the Second Plan, in contrast to the focus on agriculture.
• The development of the public sector followed the model developed by the Indian statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in 1953.
• The plan attempted to maximize long-run economic growth by ordering the optimal allocation of investment among productive sectors.
• It used prevailing state of the art techniques of operations research and optimization as well as novel applications of statistical models developed at the Indian Statistical Institute
• The plan is to have a closed economy, in which the main trading activity will be focused on import capital goods.
• The total amount allocated under the second five year plan in India was Rs 4800 crores. This amount was allocated among different sectors.

Third Five Year Plan (1961-1966)

Main goals of the third five year plan:

• The third plan aimed to establish a self-reliant and self-sustaining economy.
• This plan gave top priority to agriculture, but at the same time it also laid enough emphasis on the development of basic industries which was essential for rapid economic development.
• Almost equal importance was given to the development of both agriculture and industry. Due to war with China (1962) and Pakistan (1965) and lack of rain, this plan failed to achieve its target, due to which the fourth plan was postponed for three years and replaced by three one-year plans.
• The situation arising out of the wars with China in 1962 and Pakistan in 1965, two consecutive years of severe drought, devaluation of the currency, rise in prices and paucity of resources for plan purposes led to the finalization of the 'Fourth Plan'. Delivery delayed.
• Therefore, three annual plans were made from 1966 to 1969 keeping in mind the format of the fourth plan. This period is called 'Plan Vacation'.
• Due to India's war with China (1962) and Pakistan (1965) and lack of rain, the third five-year plan failed to achieve its goal, due to which the fourth plan was postponed for three years and replaced by three one-year plans.

Fourth Five Year Plan (1969-1974)

Main goals of the fourth five year plan:

• Economic development with stability and greater achievement of self-reliance.
• Development target with stability, intensive agriculture development program adopted for agriculture development, PDS organized.
• More importance was given to import substitution to achieve the goal of self-reliance. To stop the centralization of economic power, MRTP Act and industries were established in backward areas.
• The Fourth Plan aimed to achieve 5.7% annual average growth rate of national income, later adding 'development with social justice' and 'removing poverty'.

5th Five Year Plan (1974-1979)

Main goals of the fifth five year plan:

• In this plan, the goal of the Planning Commission was to eradicate poverty, to implement programs to meet the minimum needs of the poor, and family planning effectively.
• In order to achieve self-reliance, apart from promoting higher rate of growth, a policy was adopted for better distribution of income and a significant increase in the domestic savings rate.

Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-1985)

Main goals of the Sixth Five Year Plan:

• To expand employment in agriculture and allied sector.
• Promotion of cottage and small scale industries that prepare goods of mass consumption.
• Raising the income of the lowest income groups through the Minimum Needs Programme.

Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-1989)

Main goals of the Seventh Five Year Plan:

• In the Seventh Plan, it was decided to lay emphasis on policies and programs that increase food grains, expand areas of employment and increase productivity.
• In 1991, work was done to prepare the basis for economic reform, productive employment was arranged in it.
• In this, emphasis was laid on the development of agriculture, small and medium industries on the basis of planning based on heavy and capital intensive industries.

8th Five Year Plan (1992-1997)

The tenure of the Eighth Five Year Plan was from 1992 to 1997. Due to political instability at the centre, the 'Eighth Plan' started two years late. The details of the Eighth Plan were adopted at a time when the country was going through a severe economic crisis.

Main goals of the Eighth Five Year Plan:

• Balance of payments crisis
• Rising debt burden
• Ever-increasing budget-deficit
• Rising inflation and
• Resistance in the industry

9th Five Year Plan (1997–2002)

Main goals of the ninth five year plan:

• A 15-year perspective of development was included in the ninth five-year plan.
• Against the target of 6.5 per cent of the Gross National Product in the Ninth Plan, the actual achievement was only 5.4 per cent. Hence, the Ninth Plan failed to achieve its target of GDP growth.
• Against the target of 3.9 per cent growth rate in the agriculture sector in the Ninth Plan, the actual achievement was only 2.1 per cent.
• The achievement of the manufacturing sector was also 3.9 per cent against the target of 8.2 per cent.
• Against the Ninth Plan export target of 14.5 per cent, the average annual growth rate of exports during the five years of the Plan was 7.4 per cent. Similarly, against 12.2 percent of imports, the achievement was only 6.6 percent.

10th Five Year Plan (2002–2007)

Main goals of the Tenth Five Year Plan:

• For the first time in the Tenth Five Year Plan, state-wise growth rates were determined in consultation with the states.
• Along with this, for the first time, arrangements were made to monitor economic goals as well as social goals.
• During the plan period, To increase the growth rate in DP to 8 percent.
• To bring down the poverty ratio to 20 per cent by the year 2007 and to 10 per cent by the year 2012.
• Universal access to primary education by the year 2007.
• To reduce the decennial growth rate of population to 16.2 percent between 2001 and 2011.
• To increase literacy to 72 percent by the year 2007 and 80 percent by the year 2012.
• To increase the area under forests by 25 percent by the year 2007 and 33 percent by the year 2012.
• To establish access to potable water in all villages by the year 2012.
• To clean all major rivers by the year 2007 and other scheduled water bodies by the year 2012.

11th Five Year Plan (2007–2012)

Main goals of the Eleventh Five Year Plan:

• To increase the GDP growth rate from 8% to 10% and maintain it at 10% during the 12th Plan so as to double the per capita income by 2016-17.
• To increase agriculture based growth rate to 4% per annum.
• To create 700 lakh new employment opportunities.
• Bring down the literate unemployment rate below 5%.
• To reduce the primary school dropout rate by 20% from 52.2% in 2003-04 from 2011 to 2012.
• To increase the literacy rate of children and persons of 7 years or more to 85%.
• Bringing down the fertility rate to the level of 2.1.
• Reducing child mortality rate to 28 per 1000 and maternal mortality rate to '1 per 1000'.
• To provide clean drinking water for all by 2009.
• To reduce the level of malnutrition among children in the age group of 0-3 years by 50% from the present level.
• Increase the sex ratio to 935 by 2011-12 and 950 by 2016-17.
• To provide electricity to all the villages.
• To provide telephone facility to every village by November 2007.
• To increase the forest area of ​​the country by 5%.
• To achieve the level of air purity in major cities of the country as per the standards of 'World Health Organisation' by 2011-12.
• To increase energy capacity by 20% by 2016-17.

12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017)

Main goals of the Twelfth Five Year Plan:

• The Planning Commission has set a target of achieving an economic growth rate of 10 percent annually in the 12th Five Year Plan from 2012 to 2017.
• The global economic crisis has also affected the Indian economy. Due to this, a target has been set to reduce the rate of economic growth from 9 percent to 8.1 percent in the 11th five-year plan.
• The impact of the economic crisis that started in September 2008 has been seen in a big way in this financial year. This was the reason that the economic growth rate had come down to 6.7 percent during this period. Whereas in the previous three financial years, the economy had grown at a rate of more than nine per cent.
• In the financial year 2009-10, due to the improvement in the economy, the economic growth rate got a little boost and it reached 7.4 percent.
• The Government of India estimated it to increase to 8.5 percent in the current financial year.

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