Five Year Plan

“Tenth and Eleventh Five Year Plan comparison”

Introduction

In the post-Independence era (i.e., after 1947), the Planning Commission was set up in India, drawing from the social premises of the Directive Principles of State Policy which directed that: “The State shall strive to promote the welfare of people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may, a social order, in which justice – social, economic and political – shall inform all institutions of national life.” And further that: “The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing –

Ø That the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood.

Ø That the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to sub serve the common good

Ø That the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment”

From this, the following functions were assigned to the Planning Commission:

Ø To make an assessment of the material, capital and human resources of the country, and to augment those resources that are found to be deficient.

Ø To formulate a Plan for the most effective and balanced utilization of the country’s resources after determining the priorities.

Ø To indicate the factors those tend to retard economic development, and determine the conditions which should be established for the Plan’s successful execution.

Ø To determine the nature of machinery this will be necessary for securing successful implementation of each stage of the Plan in all its aspects.

Ø To appraise from time to time the progress achieved in the execution of each stage of the Plan and recommend for adjustments of policy and measures that such appraisal may show to be necessary.

History

The first Five-year Plan was launched in 1951 and two subsequent five-year plans were formulated till 1965, when there was a break because of the Indo-Pakistan Conflict. Two successive years of drought, devaluation of the currency, a general rise in prices and erosion of resources disrupted the planning process and after three Annual Plans between 1966 and 1969, the fourth Five-year plan was started in 1969.

The Eighth Plan could not take off in 1990 due to the fast changing political situation at the Centre and the years 1990-91 and 1991-92 were treated as Annual Plans. The Eighth Plan was finally launched in 1992 after the initiation of structural adjustment policies.

Rudimentary economic planning, deriving the sovereign authority of the state, first began in India in 1930s under the British Raj, and the colonial government of India formally established a planning board that functioned from 1944 to 1946. Private industrialists and economist formulated at least three development plans in 1944.

After India gained independence, a formal model of planning was adopted, and the planning commission, reporting directly to the Prime Minister of India was established. Accordingly, the Planning Commission was set up on 15 March 1950, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as the chairman.

For the first eight Plans the emphasis was on a growing public sector with massive investments in basic and heavy industries, but since the launch of the Ninth Plan in 1997, the emphasis on the public sector has become less pronounced and the current thinking on planning in the country, in general, is that it should increasingly be of an indicative nature.

Organization

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, current Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, at the World Economic Forum.

The composition of the Commission has undergone a lot of change since its inception. With the Prime Minister as the ex-officio Chairman, the committee has a nominated Deputy Chairman, who is given the rank of a full Cabinet Minister. Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia is presently the Deputy Chairman of the Commission.

Cabinet Ministers with certain important portfolios act as part-time members of the Commission, while the full-time members as experts of various fields like Economics, Industry, Science and General Administration.

The Commission works through its various divisions, of which there are three kinds:

Ø General Planning Divisions

Ø Programme Administration Divisions

Ø The majority of experts in the Commission are economists, making the Commission the biggest employer of the Indian Economic Services.

Functions

Ø Assessment of resources of the country

Ø Formulation of Five-Year Plans for effective use of these resources

Ø Determination of priorities, and allocation of resources for the Plans

Ø Determination of requisite machinery for successful implementation of the Plans

Ø Periodical appraisal of the progress of the Plan

Ø To formulate plans for the most effective and balanced utilization of country’s resources.

Ø To indicate the factors which are hampering economic development?

Ø To determine the machinery, which will be necessary for the successful implementation of each stage of plan?

Functional Area

Ø Agriculture Division

Ø Backward Classes Division

Ø Communication & Information Division

Ø Development Policy Division

Ø Education Division

Ø Environment & Forest Division

Ø Financial Resources Division

Ø Health, Nutrition & Family Welfare Division

Ø Housing, Urban Development & Water Supply Division

Ø Industry & Minerals Division

Ø International Economic Division

Objective of Planning Commission

The Planning Commission was set up by a Resolution of the Government of India in March 1950 in pursuance of declared objectives of the Government to promote a rapid rise in the standard of living of the people by efficient exploitation of the resources of the country, increasing production and offering opportunities to all for employment in the service of the community. The Planning Commission was charged with the responsibility of making assessment of all resources of the country, augmenting deficient resources, formulating plans for the most effective and balanced utilization of resources and determining priorities. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Chairman of the Planning Commission.

Constitution

In the context of the formulation of Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012), the following sector wise WORKING GROUPS/STEERING COMMITTEES/TASK FORCE have been set up by Planning Commission, to make recommendations on various policy matters.

Ø Agriculture

Ø Backward Classes

Ø Communication & Information

Ø Development Policy

Ø Education

Ø Environment & Forests

Ø Financial Resources

Ø Health & Family Welfare

Ø Housing & Urban Development

Ø Industry & Minerals

Ø Labour, Employment and Manpower

Ø Multi Level Planning

Ø Power & Energy, Energy Policy and Rural Energy

Ø Programme Evaluation Organization

Ø Rural Development

Ø Social Justice & Women Empowerment

Ø Science & Technology

Ø State Plans

Ø Tourism

Ø Transport

Ø Village & Small Enterprises

Ø Voluntary Action Cell

Ø Water Resources

Ø Women and Child Development

Ø International Economics

10th five year plan

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has established a network of national laboratories/institutes in various parts of the country to undertake research in diverse fields of science and technology with emphasis on applied research and utilization of results thereof. There are at present 38 research establishments including five regional research laboratories. Some of the establishments have set up experimental, survey field stations to further their research activities and 39 such stations attached to 16 laboratories are functioning at present.

The guiding principle for CSIR during the Tenth Five Year Plan (TFYP) is inherent in its mission, i.e. to provide scientific industrial R&D that maximizes the economic, environmental and societal benefits for the people of India. CSIR activities and programmes in the TFYP were operated through following six schemes of which five were continuing from Ninth Plan and one scheme namely ICT Infrastructure & Renovation & Refurbishment (IRR) introduced as a new scheme in the Plan:

Ø National Laboratories

Ø National S&T Human Resource Development

Ø Intellectual Property & Technology Management

Ø R&D Management Support

Ø New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI), and

Ø ICT Infrastructure Renovation & Refurbishment

Among these schemes, National Laboratories under which major R&D programmes/projects have been undertaken was the major scheme accounting for more than 75% of CSIR Plan funds.

APPROACH, STRATEGY & POLICY REFORMS DURING TENTH FIVE YEAR PLAN

The activities and the role performed by CSIR were in conformity with the then prevailing economic, social, industrial, and R&D environment conditions nationally & internationally.

The national target of GDP growth of 8% in Tenth Five Year Plan required organizations to re-examine their strategies & adopt innovative approach. CSIR, as a dynamic responsive organization as ever in the past, quickly responded to the need. The CSIR plans were drawn up based on the careful assessment of the needs and the opportunities, development of core competencies and R&D facilities.

The rationale for drawing programmes were based on the premise that pre-competitive research being public goods; need to be largely financed through public funding. In the selection of the programmes the guiding principles were based on:

Ø High levels of novelty and innovativeness;

Ø Global competitive positioning in science and / or technology;

Ø Potential industrial, economic, strategic, societal benefits that could be captured and accrue to the Indian economy.

As CSIR has a well knit network of laboratories across multi disciplines, a conscious decision was taken to implement programmes in network mode through establishing synergy within the vast, often niche, and competencies available with the laboratories. The knowledge networking within and across CSIR laboratories was affected through identification of network programmes and projects.

The network projects, thus evolved, for the Tenth Five Year Plan period consisted of:

ü Target oriented core network R&D projects, and

ü Building of capabilities and facilities.

OVERVIEW OF PERFORMANCE DURING THE TENTH FIVE YEAR PLAN

CSIR has made significant contributions during the first four years of TFYP in a wide spectrum of activities, which span from creation of public goods, private goods, social goods and strategic goods. While maiden flight of SARAS was a landmark in CSIR’s contributions to herald the civil aviation industry in the country, the discovery of a new molecule, as a potential drug for cure of deadly disease of tuberculosis, CSIR’s instant response to alleviation of hardships of Tsunami’s victims were a few of the major contributions in other spheres. CSIR lead the Team India initiative for setting up the first ever Traditional Knowledge Digital.

Library (TKDL) to provide a search interface to retrieval of traditional knowledge information on international patent classification (IPC) and keywords in multiple languages.

Database has been created on traditional medicinal formulations comprising 13 million A4 size pages of data on transcribed 62000 formulations in Ayurveda, 60000 formulations in Unani, and 1300 formulations in Siddha. TKDL has been receiving wide international coverage.

As a socially conscious organization CSIR continued its effort to provide the S&T needed for the masses. During the plan, it promoted employment generation on one hand and developed diverse technologies to add to the quality of life on the other hand. These technologies include: ceramic membrane based removal of arsenic and iron from contaminated ground water; pesticide removal unit for producing potable water, free from organic pollutants; setting up of Reverse Osmosis (RO) based desalination plants in villages; hand operated microfiltration units (with 3 litre /minutes discharge rate) capable of providing bacteria & virus free water; Ultra Filteration (UF) membrane based technology requiring no electricity and chemicals to remove germs, cysts, spores, parasites, bacteria, Cryptosporidium, endotoxin etc.; low sodium salt from bitterns in place of pure sodium chloride; which is being recommended to patients suffering from hypertension;etc. CSIR response to Tsunami victims had shown its scientific and technical skills to mitigate the hardship of those survived.

The initiatives taken by various CSIR laboratories could provide food, drinking water & shelter to the survivors.

Achievements during the Tenth Five Year Plan

Some of the contributions from under the scheme during the Tenth Five year Plan are summarized as below:

ü During the Plan the Central Management Support has established Human Resource Development Centre for organizing and conducting of induction, orientation, and refresher and skill up-gradation training programmes for different categories of CSIR staff.

ü The Centre thus conducted one-day interactive familiarization programs in 32 laboratories including CSIR Hqrs. for familiarization of new format for Annual Review of Performance (APR) for Group IV scientists.

ü Improvement in quality & transparency in working, the Centre organized awareness-cum-implementation programme on ISO 9001: 2000 QMS certification for HOD’s, senior scientists, administration & finance personnel from Hqrs and laboratories.

ü Development of Management Information Systems (MIS) for its various HR activities, Training Need Analysis (TNA), Creation of focused HRD groups in labs. Computer Based Training (etraining) etc.

ü A new organ called the Performance Appraisal Boards (PABs) was introduced to critically review the performance of each laboratory once in every three years.

ü During the Tenth Plan, CSIR’s international programmes had a clear focus on joint collaborative projects rather than on exchange programmes, as was the case in previous plans.

ü The Unit for R&D in Information Products created to catalyze and mobilize packaging of information products based on CSIR databases.

11th Five Year Plan

APPROACH AND STRATEGY FOR THE ELEVENTH FIVE YEAR PLAN

India’s centralized planning process is governed by seven cardinal policy objectives: growth; social justice & equity; modernization; self-reliance; food; productivity and employment.

These would continue to be the guiding principles for the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) which commences from 1st April, 2007. A very large part of our planning is concerned with fiscal aspects and physical targets. It must, however, be recognized that it is the human and natural resources, scientific methods and technologies which are the fundamental elements in the creation of wealth for higher productivity, increased efficiency and completely new ways of doing things. The Eleventh Plan, therefore, would place emphasis on these components which have received inadequate attention in the past. Eleventh Plan would be the vehicle that would position the country to be a super power- economically, strategically and scientifically. For the Eleventh Five Year Plan the Government of India is envisaging the economy to grow at an annual growth rate of 8.5%%. This implies that Agricultural Sector will have to grow at a rate of 3.9%, industry at 9.9%, services at 9.4%, and exports at 16%, while keeping the imports at a level of 12.1%.

The implicit growth of manufacturing sector which is a subset of industry is targeted for 12%. The above growth rates interwoven with each other, of course, would depend upon many factors. Some of these factors are internal to the Indian economy and some are influenced by the external environment. The growth in the agricultural productivity can be sustained on a long term basis only through continuous technological progress and these calls for well structured strategies for research & development. Industrial sector has gained a lot over the past decade or so due to liberalization and is gradually integrating with the world economy. Some of the sub-sectors like automobiles, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology products, specialty chemicals, and textiles have acquired unprecedented level of global competitiveness and need to be supported to maintain the present edge. The Eleventh Plan is also placing special emphasis on infrastructure and skill development, the two crucial and critical catalysts for growth.

The services sector is currently the fastest growing sector of economy accounting for about 54% of GDP. It is estimated that this sector has the potential for creating 40 million jobs and generating additional $ 200 billion annual income by 2020. In the Eleventh Plan, the government is placing special focus on this sector so that its potential to create employment as growth parameter is fully realized.

ELEVENTH FIVE YEAR PLAN PROGRAMMES & ACTIVITIES

The bold and the daring approach proposed for the XI Plan by the Planning Commission to achieve new vistas of growth, is expected to provide enough opportunities to convert growth potential of 8.5% into reality. This however calls for a total departure from the past practices in developmental planning and implementation, by working out new management strategies involving coordination and stronger linkages for more effective implementation.

The first five following schemes would be the continuing schemes with new programmes/projects/tasks & activities, the sixth scheme would be the new scheme:

ü National Laboratories

ü National S&T Human Resource Development

ü Intellectual Property & Technology Management,

ü R&D Management Support

ü New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative and

ü Setting up of a Translational Research Institute

Comparison between 10th and 11th five year plan

The main objectives of the 10th Five-Year Plan were:

v Reduction of poverty ratio by 5 percentage points by 2007;

v Providing gainful and high-quality employment at least to the addition to the labour force;

v All children in India in school by 2003; all children to complete 5 years of schooling by 2007;

v Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50% by 2007;

v Reduction in the decadal rate of population growth between 2001 and 2011 to 16.2%;

v Increase in Literacy Rates to 75 per cent within the Tenth Plan period (2002 to 2007);

v Reduction of Infant mortality rate (IMR) to 45 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 28 by 2012;

v Reduction of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) to 2 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 1 by 2012;

v Increase in forest and tree cover to 25 per cent by 2007 and 33 per cent by 2012;

v All villages to have sustained access to potable drinking water within the Plan period;

v Cleaning of all major polluted rivers by 2007 and other notified stretches by 2012;

v Economic Growth further accelerated during this period and crosses over 8% by 2006.

The eleventh plan has the following objectives:

1. Income & Poverty

Ø Accelerate GDP growth from 8% to 10% and then maintain at 10% in the 12th Plan in order to double per capita income by 2016-17

Ø Increase agricultural GDP growth rate to 4% per year to ensure a broader spread of benefits

Ø Create 70 million new work opportunities.

Ø Reduce educated unemployment to below 5%.

Ø Raise real wage rate of unskilled workers by 20 percent.

Ø Reduce the headcount ratio of consumption poverty by 10 percentage points.

2. Education

Ø Reduce dropout rates of children from elementary school from 52.2% in 2003-04 to 20% by 2011-12.

Ø Develop minimum standards of educational attainment in elementary school, and by regular testing monitor effectiveness of education to ensure quality.

Ø Increase literacy rate for persons of age 7 years or above to 85%.

Ø Lower gender gap in literacy to 10 percentage points.

Ø Increase the percentage of each cohort going to higher education from the present 10% to 15% by the end of the plan.

3. Health

Ø Reduce infant mortality rate to 28 and maternal mortality ratio to 1 per 1000 live births.

Ø Reduce Total Fertility Rate to 2.1

Ø Provide clean drinking water for all by 2009 and ensure that there are no slip-backs.

Ø Reduce malnutrition among children of age group 0-3 to half its present level.

Ø Reduce anemia among women and girls by 50% by the end of the plan.

4. Women and Children

Ø Raise the sex ratio for age group 0-6 to 935 by 2011-12 and to 950 by 2016-17

Ø Ensure that at least 33 percent of the direct and indirect beneficiaries of all government schemes are women and girl children.

Ø Ensure that all children enjoy a safe childhood, without any compulsion to work.

5. Infrastructure

Ø Ensure electricity connection to all villages and BPL households by 2009 and round-the-clock power.

Ø Ensure all-weather road connection to all habitation with population 1000 and above (500 in hilly and tribal areas) by 2009, and ensure coverage of all significant habitation by 2015.

Ø Connect every village by telephone by November 2007 and provide broadband connectivity to all villages by 2012.

Ø Provide homestead sites to all by 2012 and step up the pace of house construction for rural poor to cover all the poor by 2016-17.

6. Environment

Ø Increase forest and tree cover by 5 percentage points.

Ø Attain WHO standards of air quality in all major cities by 2011-12.

Ø Treat all urban waste water by 2011-12 to clean river waters.

Ø Increase energy efficiency by 20 percentage points by 2016-17.

Tenth Plan Eleventh Plan

Ø Types of Data

o Tenth Plan

§ 1. Contains no section on the unorganized sector or home-based workers

§ 2. Laid down a three-fold strategy for empowering women

§ 3. No reference to best practices

§ 4. Contains a specific chapter on Women titled ‘Women and Child.’

§ 5. Only includes data from the Census of India.

Ø Type of Data

o Eleventh Plan

§ 1. Includes a section on the unorganized sector and home-based workers and female concentrations in both.

§ 2. Uses a five-fold strategy to empower women: specific locations of women are identified, and specific issues highlighted.

§ 3. Inclusion of Best Practice boxes throughout the document

§ 4. Has renamed the chapter ‘Women’s Agency and Child Rights’ and includes a gender perspective across sectors.

§ 5. Includes data from the Census, UN bodies, academics and well-known civil society organizations.

Conclusion

Upon reviewing this experience, several pointers emerge for consideration by feminist economists who engage in public policy:

ü Firstly, the value of working within national spaces, unencumbered by international rubrics: international advisories, platform choices and methods advised usually linked to funding and to state machineries of governance cannot tether advocacy.

ü Secondly, the value of pulling together women economists who have engaged with the world of women – whether by studying action, innovation, reality in the fields, or through research into specific areas – but with special reference to women’s link to them as collectivities or networks or friend groups. This kind of space has a double advantage: they learn from each other and they also can deal with the outside.

ü Thirdly, to highlight the importance of shifting – if not drawing more serious attention to – the location of women in economies and their role as economic agents apart from social actors. While education, health, gender relations and social services are all crucial inputs especially for women in deprivation, their role as economic agents need to be brought to the fore immediately. Most bail out packages, pack women into the safety-net areas, invest in free food, nutrition for their babies and so on. But one of the most crucial roles women play is to bring income to the household, apart from their own interest in earning a living.

ü Fourthly, with the knowledge of the impact of the recent financial crisis on women and more deeply so, there is need for strong global advocacy by feminist economists to draw attention to women as earners, whether in the formal or informal economy. Such an emphasis may be required more in relation to developing countries.

ü Fifthly, there is a need to understand and highlight the difference between the South and North in these domains. The emphasis on the care economy and the clubbing together of women’s roles in production and reproduction, are in some ways the concepts of the North, and more crucially relevant there. This is not to say that the double burden of earning and caring is not a universal phenomenon which also gives unity to the concept of an identity called woman, related to the stereotypical roles; the question is one of what is crucial, at what time, and where.

Finally, even more than social input, the crying need in countries like India is for the State and society to understand the economic roles that women, especially at the lower end of the income scale, are engaged with. Strong support with infrastructure, funding for organization, upgrading of skills and most of all labour protection laws, are needed urgently.

In the South, women have been the major workers in the export industries, drawn in for their willingness to work monotonously for low wages without security. The crisis in exports, i.e., the market depression, has assaulted these vulnerable women. There is a lesson here for understanding women’s location in economic growth strategies and especially differentiating the North-South.

Bibliography & Reference

Reference:

Ø http://planningcommission.nic.in/

Ø http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Ø http://www.wworld.org/programs/regions/africa/amina_mama.htm

Ø http://dataserver.nic.in/rti/doc_rti/func.pdf

Ø http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/index.html

Ø http://www.genderandaids.org

Ø Planning Commission, Government of India. Eleventh Five Year Plan 2007-2012. 2 Vols. New Delhi: OUP, 2008.

Ø Also at http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/11thf.htm

Search Engine Utilized in Research:

Ø www.google.com

Ø www.freelibrary.com

Ø www.searchlab.com

Ø www.amazon.com

Ø www.jumbosearch.com