Q.Describe the three Schedules of industries under the Industrial Policy Resolution, 1956.

The 1956 Resolution grouped industries into Schedule A, B and C based on the degree of state versus private responsibility.

The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956, adopted alongside the Second Five Year Plan's emphasis on building heavy industry, classified industries into three Schedules based on the degree of state versus private responsibility. Schedule A industries were to be the exclusive responsibility of the state going forward; this originally covered seventeen industries including iron and steel, heavy machine-building, coal and other mining, and defence production — sectors considered too basic or strategically important to be left to private enterprise. Schedule B industries were those in which the state would increasingly set up new undertakings, but where private enterprise was also expected to supplement state effort; this category included industries such as aluminium production, machine tools and fertilisers. Schedule C comprised all remaining industries, left to the initiative and enterprise of the private sector, although the state explicitly retained the right to enter any industry in this category as well, if doing so was judged to be in the national interest. By establishing public-sector dominance over basic and heavy industry while leaving substantial room for private and small-scale enterprise elsewhere, the 1956 Resolution came to be regarded as India's 'economic …

A frequent mistake is reversing Schedule A and Schedule B — Schedule A is EXCLUSIVE state responsibility with no private role, while Schedule B still permits private partic …