Q.State the three schedules of industries under the Industrial Policy Resolution, 1956.

The IPR of 1956 classified all Indian industries into three schedules based on the extent of state versus private involvement expected in each.

The Industrial Policy Resolution, 1956, adopted after Parliament accepted the goal of a socialistic pattern of society, divided industries into three schedules to define the relative roles of the public and private sectors.

• Schedule A: Industries whose future development was to be the exclusive responsibility of the state — including heavy machine building, iron and steel, heavy electricals, and the mining of major minerals. Existing private units in this category could generally continue, but all new capacity was reserved for the state.
• Schedule B: Industries in which the state would increasingly establish new undertakings, but in which private enterprise would also be expected to supplement the state's effort, subject to state regulation and, where necessary, state participation.
• Schedule C: All industries not covered by Schedules A and B, left open to development by the private sector, though still subject to the general licensing and regulatory framework then in force.

This schedule-based classification gave the public sector a much wider 'commanding heights' role than the earlier 1948 Resolution had assigned it, and it remained the guiding industrial policy framework in India for 35 years, until the New Industrial Policy of 1991 substantially reduced the exclusive public-sector list.

A common error is confusing the three schedules of 1956 with the four categories of the 1948 Resolution, or reversing which schedule is 'exclusive state' versus 'open to private enterprise' — students should be careful to link Schedule A specifically with the term 'exclusive responsibility of the state'.