Five-Year Plans of India

[1] Inspired by the Soviet model, these plans aimed to promote balanced economic growth, reduce poverty and modernise key sectors such as agriculture, industry, infrastructure and education.

The plans evolved to address changing developmental priorities, introducing innovations like the Gadgil formula in 1969 for transparent resource allocation to states.

[3] While the five-year plans significantly shaped India's economic trajectory, they were discontinued in 2017, transitioning to a more flexible framework under the NITI Aayog.

[7] The first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, presented the First Five-Year Plan to the Parliament of India and needed urgent attention.

The motto of the First Five-Year Plan was "Development of agriculture" and the aim was to solve different problems that formed due to the partition of the nation, second world war.

Another main target was to lay down the foundation for industry, agriculture development in the country and to provide affordable healthcare, education in low price to people.

Such a role was justified at that time because immediately after independence, India was facing basic problems—deficiency of capital and low capacity to save.

The monsoon was good and there were relatively high crop yields, boosting exchange reserves and the per capita income, which increased by 8%.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) was set up to take care of funding and take measures to strengthen the higher education in the country.

The plan attempted to determine the optimal allocation of investment between productive sectors in order to maximise long-run economic growth.

The plan assumed a closed economy in which the main trading activity would be centred on importing capital goods.

Hydroelectric power projects and five steel plants at Bhilai, Durgapur, and Rourkela were established with the help of the Soviet Union, Britain (the U.K) and West Germany respectively.

Shenoy who noted that the plan's "dependence on deficit financing to promote heavy industrialization was a recipe for trouble".

[12] The Third Five-year Plan stressed agriculture and improvement in the production of wheat, but the brief Sino-Indian War of 1962 exposed weaknesses in the economy and shifted the focus towards the defence industry and the Indian Army.

In an effort to bring democracy to the grass-root level, Panchayat elections were started and the states were given more development responsibilities.

The Fourth Five-Year Plan was delayed for more than a year amid disagreements over India's economic development strategy.

[13] The plan adopted the objective of correcting the earlier trend of increased concentration of wealth and economic power.

[11] The Fifth Five-Year Plan laid stress on employment, poverty alleviation (Garibi Hatao), and justice.

The Electricity Supply Act was amended in 1975, which enabled the central government to enter into power generation and transmission.

[11] The Seventh Five-Year Plan was led by the Congress Party with Rajiv Gandhi as the prime minister.

The thrust areas of the Seventh Five-Year Plan were: social justice, removal of oppression of the weak, using modern technology, agricultural development, anti-poverty programmes, full supply of food, clothing, and shelter, increasing productivity of small- and large-scale farmers, and making India an independent economy.

Narasimha Rao was the ninth prime minister of the Republic of India and head of Congress Party, and led one of the most important administrations in India's modern history, overseeing a major economic transformation and several incidents affecting national security.

Under this plan, the gradual opening of the Indian economy was undertaken to correct the burgeoning deficit and foreign debt.

The major objectives included, controlling population growth, poverty reduction, employment generation, strengthening the infrastructure, institutional building, tourism management, human resource development, involvement of Panchayati rajs, Nagar Palikas, NGOs, decentralisation and people's participation.

[19] With the deteriorating global situation, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has said that achieving an average growth rate of 9 percent in the next five years is not possible.

The final growth target was set at 8% by the endorsement of the plan at the National Development Council meeting held in New Delhi.

The approached paper for the Twelfth Plan, approved last year, talked about an annual average growth rate of 9%.

He also indicated that soon he should share his views with other members of the commission to choose a final number (economic growth target) to put before the country's NDC for its approval.

Ahluwalia said, "We aim to reduce poverty estimates by 9% annually on a sustainable basis during the Plan period".

The UID (Unique Identification Number) will act as a platform for cash transfer of the subsidies in the plan.