Indias Five Year Plan

Ever since India got its independence, we are working our economy as per the Five Year Plans. This system of framing Five Year Plans was a good arrangement devised, by which the growth in different spheres could be suggested monitored while functioning and changed if the necessity arose. These mega plans have served us as building blocks of our national economy. A brief overview of these plans would give us a fairly clear picture of our developmental programmes. These plans would also highlight for us the targets set through these fifty years of India’s independence.
The First Five Year Plan came into existence for the years 1951 – 1956. This had a public sector outlay of Rs. 2356 crore – while the actual expenditure was only Rs. 1960 crores. The Private Sector investment was 1800 crores. The chief features of this plan was the spread of community development projects and an effort to raise the living standards of the people.
The Second Five Year Plan was to cover the period from 1956 – 1961. this plan had its set objective in industrialization – the building up of rural India and the enhancing of employment opportunities. Now, in this Plan, the Public Sector outlay was Rs. 4800 crores, and the actual expenditure was only Rs. 4672 crores. The Private Sector investment was Rs. 3110 crores. It was in this period that the National income rose by 19.5 per cent.
The Third Five Year Plan covered the period from 1961 – 1966. This Plan targeted an increase in the national income by about 5% per annum. Besides this, self sufficiency in food and the development of sectors like steel, fuel, machinery and power had become the prime objectives. The public sector outlay was Rs. 7500 croes and expenditures was Rs. 8577 crores. Private sector investment was now Rs. 4190 crores. This plan failed owing to price rise of about 20 per cent, Chinese aggression, Indo – Pak conflict and to cap it all a poor monsoon. All these factors contributed to failure of this plan. The year 1964 –...