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Unit 2: Development Strategies in India: Planning in India: Objectives, Strategies and Evaluation

conscious effort to remove all these retrogressive forces and foster social as well as individual Notes
development. Reduction of inequalities of income and the establishment of a socialist society
create conditions in which everyone will have equal opportunities in the matter of education
and employment. Besides, there will be no concentration of economic power and exploitation
of one individual by another.
Reduction of inequality of incomes : A very small group of persons in India are better-off and
have not experienced poverty and misery. These are rich landlords in the countryside, merchants,
industrialists, bankers, top officials of the Government, etc. The vast majority of people are,
however, very poor because their income is very low. Extreme inequalities of income and wealth
in India have their roots in the traditional social formation and necessarily, therefore, the
reduction of inequalities of income and wealth would be possible only through abolishing the
semifeudal relations of production in our villages. The Planning Commission outlined such
measures as the removal of all intermediaries and the ceiling on landholding for reduction of
inequalities of wealth and income in rural areas.
Another aspect of inequalities of income in India is the large disparities between rural and
urban incomes which are bound to be accentuated over the years with industrialisation and
economic growth. The Planning Commission has suggested measures to raise agricultural
productivity, development of agro-based industries, fair price to farmers for their products, etc.
Even though reduction of income inequalities has always been mentioned as one of the objectives
in all the plans, in terms of priority this objective invariably got a very low position. This could
possibly be so because Nehru, the architect of Indian planning, did not believe that the problem
of economic inequalities of income and wealth could ever be solved merely by redistribution.
The Fourth Plan stated clearly : “In a rich country, greater equality could be achieved in by
transfer of income through fiscal, price and other policies. No significant results to be achieved
through such measures in a poor country.

Socialism and democracy are the means for the creation of a society in India in which all
have equal opportunities to education, health care, employment etc; and exploitation of
one class by another is abolished.

2.3 Strategies and Evaluation of Planning

The basic objectives of our Five-Year Plans were development along socialist lines to secure rapid
economic growth and expansion of employment, reduction of disparities in income and wealth,
prevention of concentration of economic power and creation of values and attitudes of a free and
equal society.” In order achieve these objectives, the planners formulated a strategy of planned
economic development.
Mahalanobis Model of Growth

It was only with the Second Plan that there was a clear enunciation of a strategy of development by
Indian planners. Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis who was the real architect of the Second Plan, was responsible
for introducing a clear strategy of development based on the Russian experience. This strategy
emphasised investment in heavy industry to achieve industrialisation which was assumed to be the
basic condition for rapid economic development. For Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of
India, the development of heavy industry was synonymous with industrialisation. He stated : “If we
are to industrialise, it is of primary importance that we must have the heavy industries which build
machines.” Again, “there are some who argue that we must not go in for heavy industry but for
lighter ones. Of course, we have to have light industries also but it is not possible to industrialise the
nation rapidly without concentrating on the basic industries which produce industrial machines

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