Features and Objectives of Planning in India

Every Five Year Plan that India framed, from the First Plan in 1951 up to the Twelfth Plan ending in 2017, was built around a common set of objectives, even though the relative emphasis on each shifted from plan to plan.

Growth was the foremost objective: raising the rate of growth of national income and per capita income through higher rates of saving, investment and capital formation in agriculture, industry and infrastructure. Equity meant reducing inequalities of income and wealth and lowering the incidence of poverty, so that the benefits of growth reached the poorer sections of society and not merely a privileged few. Modernisation referred to the adoption of new technology and changes in the composition of output and the pattern of employment -- for instance, a gradual shift of the workforce away from low-productivity agriculture toward industry and services, along with mechanisation of production and upgrading of skills. Self-reliance meant reducing dependence on foreign aid and imports, particularly of food grains and capital goods, by building up India's own agricultural and industrial capacity -- a goal that became especially urgent after the food shortages and foreign-exchange crises of the mid-1960s. Full employment meant generating enough productive employment opportunities to absorb the rapidly growing labour force, given that population growth was itself outstripping the pace of job creation in the early decades. …