THE GOALS OF FIVE YEAR PLANS
A plan should have some clearly
specified goals. The goals of the five year plans are: growth, modernisation,
self-reliance and equity.
Growth: It refers to increase in
the country’s capacity to produce the output of goods and services within the
country. It implies either a larger stock of productive capital, or a larger
size of supporting services like transport and banking, or an increase in the
efficiency of productive capital and services. A good indicator of economic
growth, in the language of economics, is steady increase in the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP).
Modernisation: To increase the
production of goods and services the producers have to adopt new technology.
For example, a farmer can increase the output on the farm by using new seed
varieties instead of using the old ones. Similarly, a factory can increase
output by using a new type of machine. Adoption of new technology is called modernisation.
Self-reliance: A nation can promote
economic growth and modernisation by using its own resources or by using
resources imported from other nations. The first seven five year plans gave
importance to self-reliance which means avoiding imports of those goods which
could be produced in India itself. This policy was considered a necessity in
order to reduce our dependence on foreign countries, especially for food. It is
understandable that people who were recently freed from foreign domination should
give importance to self-reliance. Further, it was feared that dependence on
imported food supplies, foreign technology and foreign capital may make India’s
sovereignty vulnerable to foreign interference in our policies.
Equity: Now growth, modernisation
and self-reliance, by themselves, may not improve the kind of life which people
are living. A country can have high growth, the most modern technology
developed in the country itself, and also have most of its people living in
poverty. It is important to ensure that the benefits of economic prosperity
reach the poor sections as well instead of being enjoyed only by the rich. So,
in addition to growth, modernisation and self-reliance, equity is also
important. Every Indian should be able to meet his or her basic needs such as
food, a decent house, education and health care and inequality in the
distribution of wealth should be reduced.
