As history has shown, India’s approach to development always remains contextual. This is evident when the nationalist leaders opted for a Soviet type centralized planning as perhaps an effective means for development. The idea was widely acclaimed regardless of the ideological differences among those who presided over India’s destiny following decolonization. The Planning Commission which was constituted in 1950 was hailed as an instrument to bring about quick development in India. India’s trajectory of development however proved otherwise : instead of being instrumental in contributing to a uniform development in the country, the Planning Commission failed to accomplish the goal; it was felt that centralized planning did not appear to be effective in attaining the goal that the nationalist leadership sought to attain.
The impact of the Planning Commission on India’s development cannot be easily ignored since it had been in place for more than six decades following the withdrawal of colonisation in India in 1947 while the NITI Aayog is too new to have any sway on the trajectory of growth in the country.
What is striking is the fact that while the Planning Commission was considered to be a piece of ideological baggage borrowed from the former Soviet Union, the NITI Aayog represents an effort toward articulating India’s neoliberal endeavour for sustainable economic growth. Ideologically drawn, both the planned development of the erstwhile era and its opposite, as conceptualized by the NITI Aayog, remain important pillars of India’s growth trajectory since independence. Centralized planning may have become futile though it undoubtedly had its role in the state directed development era.
Planning And Economic Development
With the formation of the Planning Commission in 1950, India was ushered in the state-led development era in which the state became a critical economic actor. Despite its historical antecedents, the idea of the state directed planned economic development gained significant salience in independent India, especially with Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, at the helm of affairs. Given his staunch opposition to the Gandhian model of democratic decentralization, Nehru always preferred the state-driven economy as perhaps the only driving force for India’s rapid socioeconomic regeneration in the aftermath of colonial rule.
There are two fundamental questions that need to be addressed: first, has the idea of the state-driven economic development lost its relevance just because of its failure to accomplish the stated goals or due to its vacuous claim in contrast with the rising importance of a market-driven counter ideology providing an alternative to the erstwhile strategy of the state-directed economic development? There is a connected second question: whether the market – driven strategy shall be useful for peripheral societies, including India, where the proportion of the people living below the poverty line is staggeringly alarming.
The Objective Of Economic Development
The following were the original objectives of economic planning in India:
- Economic Development: This is the main objective of planning in India. Economic Development of India is measured by the increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India and Per Capita Income
- Increased Levels of Employment: An important aim of economic planning in India is to better utilise the available human resources of the country by increasing the employment levels.
- Self Sufficiency: India aims to be self-sufficient in major commodities and also increase exports through economic planning. The Indian economy had reached the take-off stage of development during the third five-year plan in 1961-66.
- Economic Stability: Economic planning in India also aims at stable market conditions in addition to the economic growth of India. This means keeping inflation low while also making sure that deflation in prices does not happen. If the wholesale price index rises very high or very low, structural defects in the economy are created and economic planning aims to avoid this.
- Social Welfare and Provision of Efficient Social Services: The objectives of all the five year plans as well as plans suggested by the NITI Aayog aim to increase labour welfare, social welfare for all sections of the society. Development of social services in India, such as education, healthcare and emergency services have been part of planning in India.
- Regional Development: Economic planning in India aims to reduce regional disparities in development. For example, some states like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are relatively well developed economically while states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and Nagaland are economically backward. Others like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have uneven development with world class economic centres in cities and a relatively less developed hinterland. Planning in India aims to study these disparities and suggest strategies to reduce them.
- Comprehensive and Sustainable Development: Development of all economic sectors such as agriculture, industry, and services is one of the major objectives of economic planning.
- Reduction in Economic Inequality: Measures to reduce inequality through progressive taxation, employment generation and reservation of jobs has been a central objective of Indian economic planning since independence.
- Social Justice: This objective of planning is related to all the other objectives and has been a central focus of planning in India. It aims to reduce the population of people living below the poverty line and provide them access to employment and social services.
- Increased Standard of Living: Increasing the standard of living by increasing the per capita income and equal distribution of income is one of the main aims of India’s economic planning.
REFERENCES : Public Administration By Bidyut Chakrabarty and Prakash Chan Kandpal
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