Question

Highlight any three features of the First Five Year Plan.

Answer 1

Following are the three features of the First Five Year plan:

1. ‘The First Five Year Plan (1951-1956) sought to get the country’s economy out of the cycle of poverty. K.N. Raj, a young economist 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.
2. It mainly addressed, the agrarian sector including investment in dams and irrigation. Agricultural sector was hit hardest by Partition and needed urgent attention. Huge allocations were made for large-scale projects like the Bhakhra Nangal Dam. The Plan identified the pattern of land distribution in the country as the principal obstacle in the way of agricultural growth. It focused on land reforms as the key to the country’s development.
3. One of the basic aims of the planners was to raise the level of national income, which could be possible only if the people saved ‘more money than they spent. As the basic level of spending was very low in the 1950s, it could not be reduced any more. So the planners sought to push savings up. That too was difficult as the total capital stock in the country was rather low compared to the total number of employable people.