-The Five-year plan was an economic initiative drafted by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal

Nehru.
- This economic plan was implemented to make better use of India’s resources, better the economic
condition, and prosper in trading and agricultural income.
- The first five-year plan was implemented in April 1951 and lasted till March 1956.
- objective was to maximize India’s per capita and individual income rate.
- better India’s economic condition, which was not in good condition, given the newfound freedom
and change of government.

Five-Year Plan
- right after independence.
- After we gained freedom from atrocious British rule, the first Indian constitution was formed and
came into action on 26th January 1950.
- All the constitution members, along with our then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, came up with
the famous Five-year Plan in the following year of 1951.
- India was going through all kinds of social, political, and economic changes.
- the country faced turmoil and chaos after independence. The economy was running low, the trades
and industries were lagging, and even all the labor was becoming inefficient.
- It was an economic plan for the benefit of the country. The plan was formulated by the constitution
and overseen by the Planning Commission – a body under the Indian government.

First Five-year plan

-presented and implemented by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister

- The first five years (1951 – 1956) plan was drafted by the economist K.N Raj a Keynesian model of
an economic plan. save India’s capital for bigger future investments and low capital investment ,
with a more efficient growth rate and income.
The plan aimed to achieve 2.1 % GDP growth that year but ended up growing up to 3.6 %. This
success in the initiation of the plan made India believe in it. The first five-year plan wanted to make
sure that India becomes self-sufficient, economically strong and thrives in its primary sectors of
growth.

Objectives of the First Five Year plan

- The plan aimed to save as much capital as possible for bigger projects in future.
- To increase per capita income.
- To improve the primary sectors’ overall efficiency.
- To produce more.
-To lessen the dependency on foreign exchanges.
-To provide employment.
-To render shelters and food supplies for the refugees.
-To control output investments and focus on generating inward capital.
-To rehabilitate the landless farmers.
-To control inflation .

The success of the First Five Year Plan

-When the plan was only aiming to achieve a growth of 2.1% GDP, the growth reached up to 3.6%,
leading to a huge economic development that India had not seen for years.
- There was an improvement not only in the primary sectors of agriculture and irrigation, but also
there was price stability, lesser inflation, growth in capital income, better employment chances, and
self-sufficiency. The first five year facts also looked into health, infant mortality, transport,
technology, and medical science, which witnessed a change in these years.

- India witnessed a total of 5 inaugurations of new technical institutions named the Indian Institutes
of Technology. The University Grants Commission (UGC) funded these incredible academic
institutions to see India and its students prosper and achieve higher education

Five Year Highlights

Plan

 The First Five Year Plan laid the thrust of

economic development in India.
 It was presented by the first Indian Prime
Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru to the Parliament of
India.
 K.N Raj, a young economist, argued that India
First should "hasten slowly" for the first two decades.
Five-  It mainly addressed the agrarian sector,
Year including investment in dams and
Plan irrigation. Ex- Huge allocations were made
(1951- for Bhakhra Nangal Dam.
56)
 It was based on the Harrod Domar Model and
emphasised increasing savings.
 By the end of 1956, five Indian Institutes of
Technology were established.
 The target growth rate was 2.1% and the achieved
growth rate was 3.6%.

Second  The Second Five Year Plan stressed rapid

Five industrialisation and the public sector.
Year
Plan  It was drafted and planned under the leadership
(1956- of P.C Mahalanobis.
61)  It emphasised quick structural transformation.
 The government-imposed tariffs on imports to
protect domestic industries under this plan.
  The target growth rate was 4.5% and the actual
growth rate was slightly less than expected,
4.27%.

 The focus was on agriculture and improvement in

the production of wheat.
 States were entrusted with additional development
responsibilities. Ex- States were made responsible
for secondary and higher education.
Third  Panchayat elections were introduced to bring
Five democracy to the grassroots level.
Year
Plan  The target growth rate was 5.6% and the actual
(1961- growth rate only achieved 2.4%
66)  This indicated a miserable failure of the Third
Plan, and the government had to declare "Plan
Holidays" (1966-67, 1967-68, and 1968-69). The
Sino-Indian War and the Indo-Pak War, which
caused the Third Five Year Plan to fail, were the
primary causes of the plan holidays.

 It was introduced under the Prime Ministership

of Indira Gandhi and attempted to correct the
previous failures.
 Based on Gadgil Formula, a great deal of
emphasis was laid on growth with stability and
Fourth
progress towards self-reliance.
Five-Year  The government nationalised 14 major Indian
Plan:
(1969-74)
Banks and the Green Revolution boosted
agriculture.
 The Drought Prone Area Programme was also
launched.
 The target growth rate was 5.6%, but the actual
growth rate was 3.3%.

Fifth  It laid stress on increasing employment and

Five-Year
 poverty alleviation (garibi hatao).
 In 1975, the Electricity Supply Act was amended,
enabling the central government to enter into
power generation and transmission.
 The Indian National Highway System was
introduced.
Plan  The Minimum Needs Programme introduced in
(1974-78) the first year of this plan, aimed to provide basic
minimum needs. MNP was prepared by D.P.
Dhar.
 The target growth rate was 4.4% and the actual
growth rate turned out to be 4.8%
 In 1978, the newly elected Morarji Desai
government rejected this plan.

Rolling Plan (1978-80)

This was a period of instability. The Janata Party government rejected
the fifth five-year Plan and introduced a new Sixth Five-Year Plan. This,
in turn, was rejected by the Indian National Congress in 1980 upon
Indira Gandhi's re-election.

A rolling plan is one in which the effectiveness of the plan is evaluated

annually and a new plan is created the following year based on this
evaluation. As a result, throughout this plan, both the allocation and the
targets are updated.

Sixth  It underlined the beginning of economic

Five Year liberation by eliminating price controls.
Plan
(1980-85)  It was seen as the end of Nehruvian Socialism.
 To prevent overpopulation, family planning was
introduced.
 On the recommendation of the Shivaraman
Committee, the National Bank for Agriculture
and Rural Development was established.
 The target growth rate was 5.2% and the actual
growth rate was 5.7%, implying that it was a
 success.

 This plan was led by the Prime Ministership of

Rajiv Gandhi.
 It laid stress on improving Industrial productivity
levels through the use of technology.
 Other objectives included increasing economic
productivity, increasing the production of food
grains and generating employment by providing
Social Justice.
Seventh
Five Year  The outcome of the Sixth Five-Year Plan provided
Plan a robust base for the success of the seventh five-
(1985-90) year plan.
 It emphasised anti-poverty programmes, the use
of modern technology, and the need to make India
an independent economy.
 It focused on attaining prerequisites for self-
sustained growth by 2000.
 The target growth rate was 5.0%. However, the
actual growth rate grew to reach 6.01%

Annual Plans (1990-92)

The Eight Five Year Plan was not introduced in 1990 and the following
years 1990-91 and 1991-92 were treated as Annual Plans. This was
largely because of the economic instability. India faced a crisis of
foreign exchange reserves during this time. Liberalisation, Privatisation,
Globalisation (LPG) was introduced in India to grapple with the problem
of the economy under prime minister P.V Narasimha Rao.

Eighth  The Eighth Plan promoted the modernisation of

Five Year Industries.
Plan
(1992-97)  India became a member of the World Trade
Organisation on 1 January 1995.
 The goals were to control population growth,
reduce poverty, generate employment, strengthen
 the development of infrastructure, manage
tourism, focus on human resource development
etc.
 It also laid emphasis on involving the Panchayats
and Nagar Palikas through decentralisation.
 The target growth rate was 5.6% but the actual
growth rate was an incredible 6.8%.

 It marked India's fifty years since Independence

and Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the prime
ministership.
 It offered support for social spheres to achieve
complete elimination of poverty and witnessed
the joint efforts of public and private sectors in
guaranteeing economic development.
 The focus was also to balance the relationship
Ninth between rapid growth and the quality of life for the
Five Year
Plan
people.
(1997-  The objectives, further included, empowering
2002)
socially disadvantaged classes, developing self-
reliance and primary education for all children in
the country.
 Strategies included enhancing the high rate of
export to gain self-reliance, efficient use of scarce
resources for rapid growth etc.
 The target growth rate was estimated at 7.1% but
its actual growth rate fell shorter to 6.8%

Tenth  The features of this plan were to promote inclusive

Five Year growth and equitable development.
Plan
(2002-07)  It intended for an 8% GDP growth per year.
 It aimed at reducing the poverty by half and
creating employment for 80million people. Further,
it aimed to reduce regional inequalities.
 It also emphasised reducing the gender gaps in
 the field of education and wage rates by 2007.
 The target growth rate was 8.1% while the actual
growth was 7.6%.

 The Eleventh Plan was significant in its aim to

increase enrolment in higher education and
focused on distant education as well as IT
institutes. Ex: The Right to Education Act was
introduced in 2009, and came into effect in 2010,
making education free and compulsory for
children aged between 6-14 years.
Eleventh  Its main theme was rapid and more inclusive
Five Year growth.
Plan
(2007-  It is aimed at environmental sustainability and
2012) reduction in gender inequality.
 C.Rangarajan prepared the Eleventh Five Year
Plan.
 The focus was also laid on providing clean
drinking water for all by 2009.
 The target rate was 9% and the actual growth rate
was 8%.

Twelfth  The last Five Year Plan had "Faster, More

Five Year Inclusive and Sustainable Growth" as its
Plan
(2012-17) theme.
 The plan aimed at strengthening infrastructure
projects, and providing electricity supply in all
villages.
 It also aimed at removing the gender and social
gap in admissions at school and improved access
to higher education.
 Further, it aspired to enhance the green cover by
1 million hectares each year and to create new
opportunities in the non-farming sector.
 The target growth rate was 9% but in 2012,
National Development Council approved a growth
rate of 8% for this twelfth plan.