Objective of Economic Planning of India

The objective of planning in India has been to achieve rapid and balanced economic development while addressing the country's social and economic challenges. India is a diverse country with a large population and varied economic and social conditions. Planning has been crucial in ensuring that the benefits of economic development reach all sections of the society.The planning process in India started with the adoption of the First Five-Year Plan in 1951. Since then, India has had a series of Five-Year Plans that have set targets for various sectors of the economy. The objective of these plans has been to accelerate economic growth, reduce poverty, increase employment, and improve the standard of living of the people. Over the years, India's planning process has evolved to incorporate new challenges and opportunities. The planning process has been decentralized, with greater involvement of the states and local bodies. There has also been a shift towards a more market-oriented approach, with a focus on private sector-led growth. The objective of planning in India has been to create a self-reliant and self-sustaining economy that can meet the needs of its citizens. The planning process has helped India to achieve significant progress in various sectors, including agriculture, industry, and infrastructure. However, there are still challenges that need to be addressed, such as reducing regional disparities and ensuring inclusive growth.Overall, the objective of planning in India has been to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic development that benefits all sections of society. The planning process has been instrumental in shaping India's economic and social landscape, and continues to be an important tool for achieving the country's development goals.

1. Economic Development:The main objective of Indian planning is to achieve the goal of economic development economic development is necessary for under developed countries because they can solve the problems of general poverty, unemployment and backwardness through it. Economic development is concerned with the increase in per capita income and causes behind this increase.In order to calculate the economic development of a country, we should take into consideration not only increase in its total production capacity and consumption but also increase in its population. Economic development refers to the raising of the people from inhuman elements like poverty unemployment and ill heath etc.

Attainment of higher rate of economic growth received topmost priority in almost all the Five Year Plans of the country. As the economy of the country was suffering from acute poverty thus by attaining a higher rate of economic growth eradication of poverty is possible and the standard of living of our people can be improved.

The First Plan envisaged a target of 11 per cent increase in national income against which 18 per cent growth in national income was achieved. The Second, Third and Fourth Plan envisaged targets for annual growth rate of 5 per cent. 5.6 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively against which the achievements were 4 per cent, 2.6 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively.

Again the Fifth and Sixth Plan also proposed the annual growth rate of 4.37 per cent and 5.2 per cent against which the achievements were 5.0 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively. The Seventh Plan also set the target of 5 per cent in respect of annual growth rate of national income.The Eighth Plan and the Ninth Plan set the target of 5.6 per cent and 7.0 per cent annual growth rate of national income against which the achievements were 6.5 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively. The Tenth and Eleventh Plan set the target of 8.0 per cent and 9.0 per cent in its annual average growth rate of GDP. Thus attaining higher rate of economic growth is found as a common objective for all the Five Year Plans of our country.

2. Increase Employment:Another objective of the plans is better utilization of man power resource and increasing employment opportunities. Measures have been taken to provide employment to millions of people during plans. It is estimated that by the end of Tenth Plan (2007) 39 crore people will be employed.

To achieve this target the major programmes which were introduced during this Plan were Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), the National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), the Operation Flood II Dairy Development Project, schemes in the villages and small industries sector the national Scheme of Training Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM) and various other components of the Minimum Needs Programme.

One of the major objectives of the Seventh Plan was a faster growth of employment opportunities. Thus the plan aimed that the employment potential would grow at 4 per cent as against the 2.6 per cent growth in the labour force. Again, the Eighth Plan envisages an annual employment growth of 2.6 to 2.8 per cent over the next ten years 1992-2002.

3. Self-Sufficient:It has been the objective of the plans that the country becomes self-sufficient regarding food grains and industrial raw material like iron and steel etc. Also, growth is to be self sustained for which rates of saving and investment are to be raised. With the completion of Third Plan, Indian economy has reached the take off stage of development. The main objective of the Tenth Plan is to get rid of dependence on foreign aid by increasing export trade and developing internal resources.

4. Economic Stability:Stability is as important as growth. It implies absence of frequent end excessive occurrence of inflation and deflation. If the price level rises very high or falls very low, many types of structural imbalances are created in the economy.

Economic stability has been one of the objectives of every Five year plan in India. Some rise in prices is inevitable as a result of economic development, but it should not be out of proportions. However, since the beginning of second plan, the prices have been rising rather considerably.

5. Social Welfare and Services:The objective of the five year plans has been to promote labour welfare, economic development of backward classes and social welfare of the poor people. Development of social services like education, health, technical education, scientific advancement etc. has also been the objective of the Plans.

6. Regional Development:Different regions of India are not economically equally developed. Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh etc. are relatively more developed. But U.P., Bihar, Orissa, Nagaland, Meghalaya and H.P. are economically backward. Rapid economic development of backward regions is one of the priorities of five year plans to achieve regional equality.

7. Comprehensive Development:All round development of the economy is another objective of the five year plans. Development of all economic activities viz. agriculture, industry, transport, power etc. is sought to be simultaneously achieved. First Plan laid emphasis on the development of agriculture. Second plan gave priority to the development of heavy industries. In the Eighth Plan maximum stress was on the development of human resources.

8. To Reduce Economic Inequalities:Every Plan has aimed at reducing economic inequalities. Economic inequalities are indicative of exploitation and injustice in the country. It results in making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Several measures have been taken in the plans to achieve the objectives of economic equality specially by way of progressive taxation and reservation of jobs for the economically backward classes. The goal of socialistic pattern of society was set in the second plan mainly to achieve this objective.

9. Social Justice:Another objective of every plan has been to promote social justice. It is possible in two ways, one is to reduce the poverty of the poorest section of the society and the other is to reduce the inequalities of wealth and income. According to Eighth Plan, a person is poor if the spends on consumption less than Rs. 328 per month in rural area and Rs. 454 per month in urban area at 1999-2000 prices. About 26 percent of Indian population lives below poverty line. The tenth plan aims to reduce this to 21%.

10. Increase in Standard of Living:The other objective of the plan is to increase the standard of living of the people. Standard of living depends on many factors such as per capita increase in income, price stability, equal distribution of income etc. During the period of Plans, the per capita income at current prices has reached only up to Rs. 20988.

All round development of the economy is another objective of the five year plans. Development of all economic activities viz. agriculture, industry, transport, power etc. is sought to be simultaneously achieved. First Plan laid emphasis on the development of agriculture. Second plan gave priority to the development of heavy industries. In the Eighth Plan maximum stress was on the development of human resources.

11. Modernization of Various Sectors: Another very important objective of Five Year Plans of our country was the modernization of various sectors and more specifically the modernization of agricultural and industrial sectors. The Fourth Plan laid much emphasis on the modernization of agricultural sector and undertook a vigorous scheme for modernization of agriculture in the name of Green Revolution. The successive plans also continued their efforts in the same direction but at a reduced rate.

The Sixth Plan categorically mentioned this objective of modernization for the first time. Here the objective of modernization means those structural and institutional changes in economic activities which can transform a feudal and colonial economy into a progressive and modern economy. Thus through modernization economy may be diversified.

It requires setting up of various types of industries and advancement of technology. In the mean time some sort of modernization always gone against employment generation thus the country is facing a conflict between the objective of modernization and the objective of removal of unemployment and poverty.