Assess the outcomes of the early phase of planned development in India.
Solution
The First Five-Year Plan (1950–1956) sought to get the country’s economy out of the cycle of poverty. K. N. Raj, a young economist who was involved in drafting the plan, argued that India should ‘hasten slowly’ for the first two decades as a fast rate of development might endanger democracy. The First Five-Year Plan addressed mainly the agrarian sector including investment in dams and irrigation.
The agricultural sector was hit hardest by Partition and needed urgent attention. Huge allocations were made for large-scale projects like the Bhakra Nangal Dam. The plan identified the pattern of land distribution in the country as the principle obstacle in the way of agricultural growth. It focused on land reforms, the key to the country's development.
The first plan had preached pertinence, the second wanted to bring about quick structural transformation. The Second Five-Year Plan had to carry forward the processes initiated in the First Five-Year Plan.
