Q.State the meaning of economic planning.

Economic planning is the deliberate direction and coordination of a country's economic activity by a central authority, for a fixed period, to achieve predetermined social and economic objectives, rather than leaving resource allocation entirely to market forces. Its defining features are: a central planning authority, definite objectives, a fixed time period, comprehensiveness across sectors, the fixing of priorities, optimum resource utilisation, and a machinery for implementation and review. India needed planning at Independence because a capital-scarce, agrarian economy required deliberate state effort to build infrastructure and heavy industry the private sector could not finance alone, to use scarce resources optimally, to reduce regional imbalances, to pursue social justice and employment as explicit goals, and to achieve self-reliance.