Brief Description Of Five-Year Plans
First plan:(1951-1956):
Target Growth:2.1 percent
Actual Growth :3.6 percent
Objectives :1.Focus on agriculture, rural development, price stability, power and transport.
2.It was based on Harrod-Domar Model. It is used in development economics to explain an economy’s growth rate in terms of the level of saving and productivity of capital. It suggests that there is no natural reason for an economy to balanced growth. The model was developed independently by Roy F. Harrod in1939 and Evsey Domar in 1946. The Harrod-Domar model was the precursor to the exogenous growth model.
3.Community Development Programme launched in 1952.
4.It was a successful plan primarily because of good harvests during the last two years of the plan period.
Second Plan (1954-1961) :
Target Growth :4.5 percent
Actual Growth :4.27 percent
Objectives :1.Focus on rapid industrialisation.
2.Also called Mahalanobis Plan, named after well-known economist P. C.Mahalanobis.
3.Shifted basic emphasis from agriculture to industry far too soon.
4.During this plan, prices increased by 30 per cent, against a decline of 13 per cent during the First Plan.
Third Plan(1961-1966):
Target Growth :5.6 percent
Actual Growth :2.84 percent
Objectives :1.At its conception, it was felt that Indian economy has entered a take-off stage.Therefore, its aim was to make India a ‘self-reliant and self-generating economy. Focus was on both heavy industrialisation and food grains production.
2.Based on the experience of first two plans, agriculture was given top priority to support the exports and industry,
3.Was a complete failure in reaching the targets due to unforeseen events Chinese aggression (1962), Indo-Pak war (1965), severe drought (1965-66)
Three Anual plans(1966-1969):
1.This three year period was called Plan Holiday.
2.During these Annual Plans, a whole new agricultural strategy was implemented,involving wide-spread distribution of high-yielding varieties of seeds, extensive use of fertilisers, exploitation of irrigation potential and soil conservation
3.During the Annual Plans, the economy absorbed the shocks generated during the Third Plan.
Fourth Plan( 1969-1974):
Target Growth :5.7%
Actual Growth :3.30%
Objectives :1.Main emphasis was on growth rate of agriculture to enable other sectors to move forward.
2.First two years of the Plan saw record production. The last three years, however,did not meet the target due to poor monsoon.
Fifth Plan( 1974-1979):
Target Growth :4.4%
Actual Growth :3.8%
Objectives :1.The Fifth Plan was prepared and launched by D. D. Dhar.
2.It proposed to achieve two main objectives: Poverty eradication (Garibi Hatao) and attainment of self-reliance.
3.Promotion of high rate of growth, better distribution of income and growth in the domestic rate of savings were seen as key instruments.
4.The Plan was terminated in 1978 (instead of 1979) when Janata Party was ushered into power.
Rolling Plan( 1978-1980):1.The Sixth Plan was first put forward by the Janata Party government for the period1 978-1983
2.However, the government lasted for only two years. Congress party returned topower in 1980 and launched a different plan.
Sixth Plan( 1980-1985):
Target Growth :5.2%
Actual Growth :5.66%
Objectives :Focus on increase in national income, modernisation of technology, ensurin continuous decrease in poverty and unemployment, population control through family planning, etc.
Seventh plan(1985-1990):
Target Growth :5%
Actual Growth :6.01%
Objectives :1.Focus on rapid growth in food-grains production, increased employment opportunities and productivity within the framework of basic tenants of planning,
2.The plan was very successful, the economy recorded 6 per cent growth rate against the targeted 5 percent.
Eighth Plan( 1992-1997):
Target Growth :5.6%
Actual Growth :6.7%
Objectives :1.The eighth plan was postponed by two years because of political uncertainty at the Centre
2.Worsening Balance of Payment position and inflation during 1990-91 were the key issues during the launch of the plan.
3.Some of the main economic outcomes during eighth Plan period were rapid economic growth, high growth of agriculture and allied sector, and manufacturing sector, growth in exports and imports, improvement in trade and current account deficit.
Ninth plan(1997-2002):
T.G-6.5 percent
A.G-5.35 percent
Objectives :It was developed in the context of four important dimensions: Quality of live,generation of productive employment, regional balance and self-reliance.
Tenth plan (2002-2007):
T.G-8.1 percent A. G-7.6 percent
Objectives :1.Providing gainful high quality employment to the addition to the labour force over the tenth plan period.
2.Universal access to primary education by 2007.
3.Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by atleast 50 per cent by 2007.
4.Reduction in decadal rate of population growth between 2001 and 2011 to 16.2 per cent.
5.Increase in literacy rate to 72 per cent within the plan period and to 80 per cent by 2012.
6.Reduction of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) to 45 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 28 by 2012
7.Increase in forest and tree cover to 25 per cent by 2007 and 33 per cent by 2012.
8.All villages to have sustained access to potable drinking water by 2012.
9.Cleaning of all major polluted rivers by 2007 and other notified stretches by 2012
10.Domestic savings foreign investment, forcign exchange reserves increased.
11.Capital outflow reduced.
Eleventh Plan( 2007-2012):
T.G-9% A.G-8%
Objectives :1.Accelerate GDP growth from 8 per cent to 10 per cent. Increase agricultural GDP growth rate to 4 per cent per year.
2.Create 70 million new work opportunities and reduce educated unemployment to below 5 per cent.
3.Raise real wage rate of unskilled workers by 20 percent.
4.Reduce dropout rates of children from elementary school from 52.2 per cent in 2003-04 to 20 per cent by 2011-12. Increase literacy rate for persons of age years or above to 85 per cent.
5.Reduce infant mortality rate to 28 and maternal mortality ratio to 1 per 1,000 live births.Reduce total fertility rate to 2.1
6.Provide clean drinking water for all by 2009. Reduce malnutrition among children between 0 and 3 years to half its present level. Reduce anaemia among women and girls by 50 per cent.Raise the sex ratio for age group 0-6 to 935 by 2011-12 and to 950 by 2016-17. Ensure that at least 33 percent of the direct and indirect beneficiaries of all government schemes are women and girl children.
7.Ensure all-weather road connection to all habitation with population 1,000 and above (500 in hilly and tribal areas) by 2009, and ensure coverage of all significant habitation by 2015 Connect every village by telephone by November 2007 and provide broadband connectivity to all villages by 2012
8.Increase forest and tree cover by 5 percentage points.Attain WHO standards of air quality in all major cities by 2011-12
9.Treat all urban waste water by 2011-12 to clean river waters.Increase energy efficiency by 20 percentage points by 2016-17.
Tewelfth plan (2012-2017):
Average Growth target:8.2 percent
Objectives :1.Growth rate has been lowered to 8.2 per cent from 9.0 per cent projected earlier in view adverse domestic and global situation.
2.The plan aims towards achieving a growth of 4 percent in agriculture and to reduce poverty by 10 percentage points, by 2017.
3.The Twelfth Plan has set a target of 8 percent growth over the five year period 2012-13 to 2016-17. With a growth of only 5 percent in the first year and perhaps 6.5 percent in the second, it will require a very sharp acceleration in the later years to achieve an average of 8 percent over the entire Plan period. Growth will have to be pushed to over 9 percent in the last two years.
4.According to Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, areas of main thrust are infrastructure, health and education.
5.On poverty alleviation, the Commission plans to bring down the poverty ratio by 10 per cent. At present, the poverty is around 30 per cent of the population.
Achievements of Five-Year plans in India:
1. Progress in agriculture
2. Increase in GDP, per capita income, savings and investment
3. Progress in industry and industrial growth
4. India has achieved self-sufficiency in almost
all basic and capital goods industries and
consumer goods industries. There is a good deal
of diversification in industrial structure.
5. Development of huge educational system
6. Development in the field of science & technology
Failures of Five-Year plans in India:
1. Failure to eliminate poverty
2. Failure to eliminate economic inequality
3. Failure to provide employment to all able
persons
4. Failure to implement land reforms
5. Failure to check growth of black money
6. Failure to prevent concentration of economic power.
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