What are Five Year Plans?
The Planning Commission was developed on 15 March 1950 and the planning system began on 1 April 1951. The first five-year plan was introduced in India in 1951 and since then, India has launched twelve Five Year Plans. The present government had discontinued the Five-year plan system and a new system took place. The planning commission is presently replaced by NITI Ayog. In addition to all five year plans in India, some Annual plans have been introduced to improve the financial situation of the country during that time period. These plans were mainly established to achieve the fast economical growth of the country.
Why Were Five Year Plans Made?
Every Five-year plan and Annual plan had an objective and assessments. The basic objectives of all five-year plans in India are as follows;
Five-year plans have the objectives of economic growth of the country, economic equity among the residents, and social justice to all.
Every Plan has targeted to give employment to the people.
It has the objective of attaining economic self-reliance, which means It has the purpose of making India an independent country.
Five-year plans also have some short-term goals such as agricultural development, control of inflation and rehabilitation of refugees, rapid industrial growth, expansion of basic industries, etc.
All the plans have the main objective of attaining a high Growth rate for the improvement of the living standard of the residents of India.
It focuses on reducing the population of people living below the poverty line and providing them employment and social services.
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Image: Objectives of Five Year Plans
Economical Plans (History & Objectives)
Here the list of all five year plans in India is provided with a detailed explanation about all five-year plans in India.
First Five Year Plan (1951 - 1956)
The First Five Year Plans came into force in 1951 and remained active till 1956 (next five years). It was one of the most important Five-year plans of India because it had a great contribution to the launching of Indian development after Independence. The first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru presented the First Five-Year Plan to the Parliament of India. The total budget of the plan was 2069 crore rupees. The First Five-year plan was mainly concentrated on Agriculture, Transport, and Communications. The target growth rate of the plan was 2.1% and the achieved growth rate was 3.6%.
Second Five Year Plan (1956-1961)
The Second Plan had the aim of the development of the public sector and rapid Industrialization. The plan is based on the Mahalanobis model, an economic development model. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, an Indian statistician, developed the plan in 1953. The total budget of the Second Five-Year Plan in India was Rs. 48 billion. The target growth rate of the Second Five-year plan was 4.5% and the achieved growth rate was 4.27%.
Third Five Year Plan (1961-1966)
The Third Five-year Plans had the main focus on agriculture and improvement in the production of wheat. Many fertilizer and cement plants were built under this plan.
Punjab started producing an abundance of wheat. Panchayat elections were begun and the states took more development responsibilities. The target growth rate was 5.6% but the actual growth rate was 2.4%. This plan failed in achieving its desired growth rate.
Plan Holidays – Annual Plans (1966-1969)
The Third Five-year plan failed miserably. Then the Indian government declared Plans Holiday (1966–67, 1967–68, and 1968–69). The main reasons for the declaration of Plan holidays were the lack of resources and the war.
Fourth Five Year Plan (1969 – 1974)
The Fourth Five year Plan was introduced in the time of Prime Minister India Gandhi.
The major objectives of this plan were growth with stability, equality and social justice.
The Indira Gandhi government targeted the Green Revolution in India in the field of advanced agriculture and nationalized 14 major Indian banks. India tested the Smiling Buddha underground nuclear test in Rajasthan. The famous Slogan of Garibi Hatao was given by Indira Gandhi during this Five-year plan. The target growth rate was 5.6% and the achieved growth rate was 3.3%.
Fifth Five Year Plan (1974 – 1979)
The Fifth Five-Year Plan majorly stressed employment, poverty alleviation and justice. The slogan of this plan was Garibi Hao. The Fifth five-year plan was a target on
self-reliance in agricultural production and defence. The Electricity Supply Act came into action in 1975. Morarji Desai government rejected the plan in 1978. The target growth rate was 4.4% and the achieved growth rate was 4.8%.
Rolling Plan (1978-1990)
The Rolling Plan came into effect from 1978 to 1990 after the termination of the fifth Five Year Plan. Congress rejected the Rolling Plan and a new sixth Five Year Plan was introduced in 1980. There were three plans were introduced under the Rolling plan; first, for the budget of the present year, the second plan was for a fixed number of years of 3,4 or 5 and the last perspective plan for long terms of 10,15 or 20 years.
Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-1985)
The Sixth Five-Year Plan was the beginning of economic liberalization. This was the ending plan of Nehruvian socialism. Family planning was also expanded to stop overpopulation. The target growth rate of this plan was 5.2% and the actually achieved growth rate was 5.7%.
Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-1990)
This plan came into action with the comeback of the Congress Party to power. The plan was focused on improving the productivity level of industries by upgrading technology.
The main objectives of the Seventh Five-Year Plan were to ensure growth in areas of increasing economic productivity, generating employment through Social Justice, and mass production of food grains. The target growth rate was 5.0% and the achieved growth rate was 6.01%.
Annual Plans (1990-1992)
The Eighth Plan could remain in 1990 due to changing political situations at the centre.
The years 1990–91 and 1991–92 were when Annual Plans were established.
Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-1997)
Modernization of industries was a major objective of the Eighth Plan and other objectives were controlling population growth, involvement of Panchayati Raj, Nagar Palikas, employment generation, strengthening the infrastructure, institutional building, tourism management, poverty reduction, human resource development NGOs, decentralization and people’s participation. The target growth rate was 5.6% and the actual growth rate was 6.8%.
Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002)
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India when the Ninth Five-Year Plan came into action. The Ninth Five-Year Plan showed contributions towards development from the general public as well as governmental agencies in both the rural and urban areas. The Ninth Five-Year Plan targeted the relationship between fast economic growth and the quality or the standard of life for the people of the country. The target growth was decided at 7.1% and the achieved growth was lower than the target growth was 6.8%.
Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007)
The major purpose of the Tenth Five-Year Plan was to gain 8% GDP growth per year, to reduce of poverty rate by 5% by the end of the plan, to providing gainful and quality employment to the labour force, to the reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50%. This plan has a target growth of 8.1% and achieved growth was 7.7%.
Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012)
C. Rangarajan prepared the Eleventh Five-year Plan. The main focus of the Eleventh Five year plan was for faster and more inclusive growth. The growth rate was 8.1% and the actual growth was 7.9%.
Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017)
The Twelfth Five year Plan was the last five-year plan of India. It was focused on the fast and stable growth of India. The objectives points of this five-year plan were the betterment of the infrastructural projects of the nation, to create 50 million new work opportunities in the non-farm sector to improve access to higher education, provide electricity supply in all the villages, to provide drinking water to the rural areas, it abolishes Gender & Social Gap in School Admissions, Reduction of the malnutrition issue among children, enhancement of green cover by 1 million hectares every year, to provide banking services to maximum households. The Twelfth Five-Year Plan has achieved a growth rate of 8.2%.
List of All Five Year Plans of India
The list of all five-year plans in India is given below along with its period. The list of all five-year plans of India also has a rolling plan and annual plans.
Did You Know?
The new government led by Mr Narendra Modi had announced the dissolution of the Planning Commission, and its replacement by NITI Aayog ( National Institution for Transforming India).
Mokshagundam Vishweswaraiah is known as the Father of Indian Economic Planning.
FAQs on Five Year Plans of India
1. Which Five Year Plan Focused Upon the Target of “Growth With Social Justice and Equality”?
Answer: The Ninth Five Year Plan which was started on 1st April 1997 and ended on 31st March 2002 has the major focus upon the target of "Growth with Social Justice and Equality". This plan was launched after 50 years of independence under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This plan was not successful in achieving the growth target of 6.5% and achieved a growth rate of 5.6%
2. Which Five Year Plan Was Suspended One Year Before the Schedule?
Answer: The Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-1978) was suspended before the schedule. This Plan was suspended by the newly elected Morarji Desai Government in 1978. The Janata Party government terminated the Fifth Five-Year Plan and introduced a new Sixth Five-Year Plan at that place.Learn about Five Year Plans of India topic of General Knowledge in details explained by subject experts on Vedantu.com. Register free for online tutoring session to clear your doubts.
