Meaning of National Development

For a nation to overcome challenging milestones and achieve pride, the nation needs to strive continuously to do better. Our government achieves glory when the nation witnesses a higher level of development in every sector, making its citizens more dependent on the government. To achieve national development, we need first to understand the meaning of national development. 

National development is an extensive term that encompasses and witnesses a holistic approach in all domains of the nation’s development and its individuals. It aims at improving the standard of living for its citizens. National Development aims at modernisation in all sectors of a nation, in the presence of peaceful co-existence among all the groups of the nation.  

National Development has been studied and defined by various individuals and governing bodies. John Vasey, a well-known economist, defines national development as follows, “National Development is the total effect of all citizen forces and added to the stock of physical, human resources, knowledge and skill’. 

It is empirical to understand the meaning of national development to contribute to our nation’s growth. The United Nations’ decade report defines National Development as “National Development is a growth plus change. Change in turn is social and cultural as well as economic and qualitative as well as quantitative”.

While understanding the meaning of national development, we need to know that it encapsulates a broad range of parameters, including the growth of human resources, harnessing of industrial production,application of science and technology in health, industry, textile and agriculture sector, provision for mass education and facilities for the disadvantaged and poor and development through a planned and well-phrased economy. Therefore, to achieve an overall and balanced national development of a nation, one needs to look into all facets that make up a nation, including Cultural, social, political, scientific, economic and material aspects. Focus and growth in these facets which make up a nation will ensure the growth and development of the nation as a whole. 

Five-Year plans

The National Development Council, also known as the Rashtriya Vikas Parishad, is the primary body for making decisions and strategies on matters involving the country’s development. So far, 57 meetings have been held, the 57th meeting held on 27th December 2012. Amongst the various objectives set by the council to drive the nation towards economic development, some of them were strengthening the country’s economy is one of the essential aspects of shaping the country towards national development, as the nation’s economy remains the backbone of its progress.

From 1947 to 2017, the Indian economy was based and led on the concept of planning, which the Planning Commission monitored. This was carried out through the five-year plans. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, presented the Five-Year Plans to the parliament, which focused on developing the primary sector. The motto of the first five-year plan was the development of agriculture.

Following this, there have been 12 five-year plans focusing on various aspects required to build a functioning nation, including rapid industrialisation, economic liberalisation, upgrading the nation’s science and economy sectors, socialism, energy production, implementing the budget, provision for education to highlight a few. 

Analysing these annual plans for five years and working on them annually, our nation has gained significant praise regarding the aforementioned aspects. For example, while preparing the draft outline for the fourth five-year plans, there were two annual plans for the year 1966-67 and 1967-68 based on assumptions and calculations of the above. 

Challenges for National Development: 

Though national development for each country is a necessity and a rightful privilege to its citizens, some challenges arise and hamper this development process. The United Nations have listed down specific challenges that arise worldwide, slowing the development of the countries and the need to overcome these challenges. Given below are a few challenges which we need to overcome to bring about national development worldwide:

• Poverty
• Delay in sustainable development 
• The injustice of human rights
• Lack of gender equality 
• Lack of resilience to crisis and shock
• A mismatch between moral and scientific values
• The rapid growth of the population
• Illiteracy
• Lack of means of sanitisation and public health

Conclusion

Thus, to summarise, National Development is a key for the nation and its citizens to prosper. The government needs to provide the necessary means and provisions to drive the nation towards this growth to achieve the true meaning of national development.