India's Five-Year Plans Explained: Timeline, objectives, and Achievements

The Journey of India’s Five-Year Plans: From Planning Commission to NITI Aayog

🔷 Birth of the Planning Commission (1950)

🎯 Established: 15 March 1950

👤 Headed by: The Prime Minister (ex-officio chairman) and Deputy chairman. ( first Deputy Chairman: Gulzarilal Nanda)

🧠 Purpose: Economic & social development through strategic resource allocation

📌 Role: Assessed human/material resources, formulated plans, set priorities, and removed growth obstacles.🗂️ What Are Five-Year Plans?

🛠 Short-term plans for 5 years, inspired by the Soviet Union (USSR)

🎯 Goal: Allocate national resources toward socio-economic objectives

📜 Total: 12 Five-Year Plans launched before the Planning Commission was replaced by NITI Aayog in 2015.

📆 Highlights of Each Five-Year Plan

1️⃣ First Plan (1951–56)

Based on Harrod-Domar model

Focus: Agriculture, irrigation, power

✅ Success: 3.6% growth, IITs & major dams like Bhakra-Nangal started

2️⃣ Second Plan (1956–61)

Based on Mahalanobis model

Focus: Industrialization, steel plants

Growth: Target 4.5%, achieved 4.27%

3️⃣ Third Plan (1961–66) – Gadgil Yojana

Aim: Boost agriculture & national income

Setback: Wars (China 1962, Pakistan 1965), poor monsoon.

Growth: Target 5.6%, actual 2.4%

🛑 Plan Holidays (1966–69)

Three annual plans due to war & instability

Focus on agriculture and industry balance

4️⃣ Fourth Plan (1969–74)

Green Revolution 🌾

14 banks nationalized

Growth: Target 5.6%, actual 3.3%

5️⃣ Fifth Plan (1974–78) – Garibi Hatao Era

Focus: Employment, poverty removal, justice

Highway system started

Growth: Target 4.4%, achieved 5%

🔁 Rolling Plan (1978–80)

Introduced by Janata Govt, later dropped

Concept by Gunnar Myrdal

6️⃣ Sixth Plan (1980–85)

Start of economic liberalization

Growth: Target 5.2%, achieved 5.4%

7️⃣ Seventh Plan (1985–90)

Focus: Food production, productivity, jobs

🌱 Launched Jawahar Rozgar Yojana

Growth: Target 5%, achieved 6.01%

📆 Annual Plans (1990–92)

Political instability

⚠️ Forex crisis in 1991 ➝ India adopted Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization (LPG) reforms

8️⃣ Eighth Plan (1992–97)

Focus: Modernize industries, control population, build infrastructure

Growth: Target 5.6%, achieved 6.8%

9️⃣ Ninth Plan (1997–2002)

"Growth with Justice & Equity"

Focus: Poverty eradication, food security

Growth: Target 6.5%, achieved 5.4%

🔟 Tenth Plan (2002–07)

Aim: 8% GDP growth, create 50M jobs

Launched 20-point program

Growth: Target 8.1%, achieved 7.3%

1️⃣1️⃣ Eleventh Plan (2007–12)

Accelerated growth: 8% ➝ 10%

Targets: Reduce unemployment, improve sex ratio, double income

Scheme: Rajiv Aarogyasri

1️⃣2️⃣ Twelfth Plan (2012–17) – Last Plan

Motto: Faster, Inclusive & Sustainable Growth

Focus: Poverty reduction, agriculture (4% growth), skill development, infrastructure

🛑 Why Planning Commission Was Replaced

❌ Excessive centralization

❌ Overlap with Finance Commission

❌ Bureaucratic, not expert-driven

❌ Political misuse during UPA era

🆕 NITI Aayog – Think Tank of New India

📅 Formed: 1 Jan 2015

👤 Headed by: The Prime Minister (ex-officio chairman) and Deputy chairman. (first deputy chairman of NITI Aayog: Arvind Panagariya and Current deputy chairman (08/07/2025): Suman K Berry)

🔁 Replaced top-down model with bottom-up approach

🧠 Focus: Policy innovation, state involvement, data-driven planning.