Q.Define economic planning.

Economic planning is a widely used concept in development economics that describes deliberate, government-directed resource allocation.

Economic planning refers to a conscious, government-led effort to determine how a nation's limited resources — land, labour, capital, and enterprise — are allocated among competing uses, with the aim of achieving specific economic and social objectives within a fixed time frame, typically five years in India's case.

Unlike a purely market-driven economy, where prices and private decisions determine resource allocation, a planned approach sets targets for output, investment, and welfare in advance, and directs both public investment and, to a lesser extent, private activity toward meeting them. India adopted this approach through its Planning Commission and successive Five Year Plans from 1951 onward, aiming for objectives such as growth, modernisation, self-reliance, social justice, and full employment.

Students often confuse 'economic planning' with mere government budgeting; planning specifically involves fixed targets over a defined period and a comprehensive allocation strategy, not just annual revenue-expenditure accounting.