SSC CGL Economics · Indian Economy
Five-Year Plans and Indian Planning
Each Five-Year Plan with its years, model, slogan and the schemes it started, the breaks between plans, and the Planning Commission and the ideas behind early planning.
Why this matters
Thirty-nine questions in the bank: 14 from the 2023 shifts, nine from the 2024 shifts and 16 from the 2025 shifts, and none of them HARD. Nearly every question names one plan and asks its model, slogan or scheme, so the plan table is worth learning row by row.
Concept 1 of 3: The First and Second Plans
Definition
The First Plan (1 April 1951 to 1956):
- Based on the Harrod-Domar model, which stresses savings and investment.
- Top priority: agriculture, with irrigation and power.
- Target growth 2.1%; achieved 3.6%.
The Second Plan (1956 to 1961):
- Based on the P. C. Mahalanobis model (not a Keynesian one).
- Aim: rapid industrialisation, with heavy and basic industries first, so that capital goods would build capacity for later growth.
- It carried the socialist pattern of society and the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956, which gave the public sector the commanding heights.
- Steel plants, power and railways grew in this plan.
Practise this conceptself-check · 3 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
Example 1 · Indian Economy · Five Year Plans and Indian Planning
No plan was Keynesian
Concept 2 of 3: The Third Plan to the Eighth, and the breaks
Definition
The plans:
- Third (1961-66): a self-reliant, self-generating economy; wars and drought wrecked it.
- Plan Holiday (1966-69): three Annual Plans.
- Fourth (1969-74): growth with stability; the Drought Prone Area Programme (1973).
- Fifth (1974-79): Garibi Hatao and self-reliance, drafted by D. P. Dhar; the Minimum Needs Programme. The Janata government ended it in 1978.
- Rolling Plan (1978-80), under Morarji Desai.
- Sixth (1980-85): removal of poverty with modernisation; IRDP and NREP.
- Seventh (1985-90): food, work and productivity; the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (1989).
- Eighth (1992-97): carried the 1991 reforms; the PM Rozgar Yojana (1993).
So seven plans were completed between 1947 and 1990. Later plans: the Ninth (1997-2002) to the Twelfth (2012-17).
Practise this conceptself-check · 3 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
Example 2 · Indian Economy · Five Year Plans and Indian Planning
The Plan Holiday is 1966-69
Concept 3 of 3: The Planning Commission and early ideas
Definition
The body:
- The Planning Commission was set up on 15 March 1950 by a cabinet resolution. The Prime Minister chaired it, so Jawaharlal Nehru was its first chairman.
- It was replaced by NITI Aayog in 2015.
- Plans gave the government long-term intervention in the economy, and drafts were revised after public criticism.
Ideas before and in early planning:
- The Bombay Plan (1944), 'A Plan of Economic Development for India', came from industrialists such as J. R. D. Tata and G. D. Birla.
- Self-reliance: to cut dependence on foreign aid and imports.
- Import substitution: tariffs and quotas to protect infant domestic industries.
- Land reforms, for equity: abolition of intermediaries (zamindars) and ceilings on landholdings.
Practise this conceptself-check · 3 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
Example 3 · Indian Economy · Five Year Plans and Indian Planning
The Commission is 1950, not 1947
Summary — formulas & gotchas at a glance
A revision cheat-sheet for the formulas and gotchas above. Click any concept name to jump back to its full explanation.
Reference tables (3)
Watch out for (3)
- No plan was Keynesian→ The First and Second Plans
- The Plan Holiday is 1966-69→ The Third Plan to the Eighth, and the breaks
- The Commission is 1950, not 1947→ The Planning Commission and early ideas
Test yourself on Indian Economy
20 past SSC CGL questions from this chapter, timed at 12 minutes and marked the way the exam marks it. You see your score and every answer the moment you finish. Free to start.