A five year plan is a totally centralized process of economic planning. The first ever recorded memory of a five year plan was Joseph Stalin. Joseph implemented these five year plans during 1928 and it was done in the Soviet Union. The first Five year plan in India was put into act in 1951 by the initial Prime Minister of India after independence, Jawaharlal Nehru. 

The first five year plan in India

The aim of the first five year plan in India was to focus on the development in Agriculture along with taking care of the problems faced by the people after the partition of India and Pakistan. Some other general outlooks of the plan were to give low cost health care, education and the needful amenities. Finances of the plan were as follows, the total budget was set to be ₹ 2069 crore which was later required to be increased to ₹2378 crore. The distribution of this budget money was as follows –

• 27.2% was allocated for irrigation and energy.
• 17.4%  was allocated for agricultural and community development.
• 24% for the transport and communication sector.
• 8.6% of the money was for the industrial sector.
• 16.6% was allocated for social services
• For Rehabilitation of the landless farmers, 4.1% of the funds were allocated
• 2.5% was there for other sectors and services.

It started in 1951 and it ended in 1956 and here are the results after the very first five year plans in India. 

India saw a rise in GDP by a 3.6% growth rate, it was more than the expected growth rate of 2.1%. Irrigation projects of Bhakra, Hirakud and the DVC were established. India saw a growth in population as the Wito and Indian government together led the reduced infant mortality program. India’s education system also was boosted as five IIT’s had been established by then and UGC had been set up to solve problems related to funding and strengthening higher education ,was solved.

The twelfth 5 year plan.

This five plan in India was launched with the aim of achieving a growth rate of 9%. This was changed to 8% as the NDC approved only 8% on the 27th December 2012. Complications arose, as with those global situations Mantok Singh Ahluwalia (Chairman of Planning Commission) said it was not true that 9% growth rate would be achievable. The main objectives of this plan was to –

• Creating work opportunities around the nor-farming sector. The work opportunities created were targeted to be 50 million.
• Removal of differentiation of gender and social gap in schools and its enrolment.
• To make higher education easily available.
• Kids around the age of 0-3 years were targeted to reduce malnutrition in them
• Enhance greenery by increasing it around 1 million hectare per year during these 5 years.
• Easier banking service for 90% of the households.
• Provide the villages India with proper electricity connection.
• 50% of the people staying in villages should atleast get access to fresh drinking water.

Rolling plan of 1978-1980

The Janata Party led by Indira Gandhi was the party in power during this time. They decided to reject that year’s five year plans and introduced their own sixth five year plan which was supposed to last from 1978-1980. However in 1980 when the congress was in power they rejected that plan and proposed their own 5 year plan. So after this the rolling plan consisted of 3 plans which were proposed by each of them. One was for the current year only, the second was for a fixed number of  years in the future and the third plan was based on the long run of 10-20 years. 

Conclusion

The five year plan or any similar plans are very much necessary for a country to prosper. Setting goals is the first step of actually achieving them and developing countries should adopt this method to properly strategize their growth and foresee their future . Countries can figure out their expected per capita income and work to reduce poverty by simple applications on a broader basis throughout the country.