Planning – Old Year Questions

• Economic and Social Planning is mentioned in the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which is controlled by both the Union Government of India and the State Governments.

• The government set up the Development, Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) on September 18, 2015 by combining the Programme Evaluation Organization (PEO) and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO).
• DMEO is responsible for keeping an eye on how government programs and initiatives are being implemented, and for finding resources to increase their chances of success and reach.

• The National Development Council was created in 1952 and was meant to be the same as the Planning Commission.
• People have suggested getting rid of NDC, but so far no one has made it official.
• NITI Aayog’s Governing Council has been taking on the same roles as the NDC, so it has not been given any work or held any meetings.
• Both the other statements about NDC are true.

• The Finance Commission is part of the Constitution, but the Planning Commission is not. Therefore, option (a) is not correct.
• The Finance Commission decides how and with what formula the taxes collected should be split between the federal government and the states, as well as how it should be distributed among the states according to the rules set out in the constitution and what is needed right now.
• The Planning Commission suggests giving money to States on income funds under the Indian Constitution’s Article 275. They make Five-Year Plans for India, which look at both the necessary money for capital and the income of the States. Option (b) is correct.
• The Finance Commission Rules of 1951 set out the requirements for being a member of the constitutional body: they must have expertise in government finances and accounts, broad knowledge and experience in financial matters and administration, or special knowledge of economics, and must be qualified to be a judge of a High Court.
• People who were part of the former Planning Commission and met the requirements could also become a part of the Finance Commission. After a while, there were conflicts between the two groups because there were no clear rules about what each group should do.
• The Second Finance Commission said that the Planning Commission and Finance Commission overlapped and caused issues. This was changed on January 1, 2015, when the Planning Commission was closed. So, options (c) and (d) are wrong.

• Ashok Chandra said that the Planning Commission was like India’s Economic Cabinet, because of its unclear role and wide range of duties.

• The National Development Council was created on August 6th, 1952 to help support the goals of the Planning Commission’s Five Year Plans, to make sure everyone is working together to develop the country, and to make sure the whole country is growing quickly and evenly.
• The National Development Council was the highest body that made decisions about plans prepared by the former Planning Commission.
• They also reviewed how the plan was going and recommended any changes needed to reach the goals of the National Plan.
• The Prime Minister is the leader of the National Development Council (NDC). There have been suggestions that the NDC should be abolished, but no official decision has been made yet.
• NITI Aayog’s Governing Council has taken on the same duties as the NDC, so the NDC does not have anything to do and has not held any meetings.

• The National Development Council was created on August 6th, 1952 to help support the goals of the Planning Commission’s Five Year Plans, to make sure everyone is working together to develop the country, and to make sure the whole country is growing quickly and evenly.

• The Prime Minister is the leader of the National Development Council (NDC). There have been suggestions that the NDC should be abolished, but no official decision has been made yet.

• B.S. Minhas is the author of the book ‘Planning and the Poor’

• The National Development Council was created on August 6, 1952, to help strengthen the nation’s resources, implement common economic policies, and make sure all parts of the country develop quickly and equally.

• The NDC is the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to approving India’s Five Year Plans.

• The Planning Commission was created in March 1950 as a way of providing advice to the Government of India.
• The purpose was to help people have a better quality of life by using the country’s resources more efficiently, producing more, and giving everyone a chance to work and help the community.
• This organization was not established by the Constitution or an Act of Parliament.
• It was a quasi-political body that was not completely independent from the government.

• In India, a Planning Commission was set up on March 15, 1950.
• This commission created the country’s Five-Year Plans.
• On August 17, 2014, the commission was replaced by the NITI Aayog.

• The Planning Commission is not mentioned in the Constitution, so it is not a legal body.
• It was created to help the Government plan and monitor development, but it does not have the same power as other official bodies.

• The Planning Commission is not mentioned in the Constitution, so it is not an official organization.
• It was created by the Government to help plan and monitor development projects, but it has no legal status.

• The Planning Commission was created on March 15, 1950, through a Cabinet Resolution and was replaced with the NITI Aayog on January 1, 2015, with another Cabinet Resolution.
• The NITI Aayog was created to help India become a strong nation-state through cooperative federalism and better governance. It does not have a permanent Chairman.
• NITI Aayog has a Vice Chairman who works full-time and the Prime Minister is the leader of the organization.
• The Governing Council consists of the Chief Ministers of all the states, the Chief Ministers of all the Union Territories with a Legislature and the Lieutenant Governors of other Union Territories.

• NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) was set up on 1st January 2015 by the Cabinet to take the place of the Planning Commission.
• It is a public policy research center of the Government of India, with the goal of achieving sustainable development goals through the cooperation of the State Governments of India in the economic policy-making process with a focus on the ideas of those at the lower levels.
• The Prime Minister is the head of NITI Aayog.

• NITI Aayog is a think tank created by the Indian government in 2015.
• Its purpose is to help India achieve its development goals and involve the state governments in the decision-making process.
• The Prime Minister is the head of NITI Aayog.

• On January 1, 2015, the Indian government passed a decision to replace the Planning Commission with NITI Aayog, a new organization.
• NITI Aayog was officially announced by the Union Government of India on the same day.

• NITI Aayog stands for National Institution for Transforming India.
• It is a government think tank that gives advice on government policies and programs.
• It was created in 2015 to take the place of the Planning Commission.

• NITI Aayog is the main body responsible for carrying out the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in India.
• It was set up with the purpose of achieving the SDGs through cooperative federalism.

• Arvind Panagariya, an Indian-American economist and professor from Columbia University, was the first Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog from January 2015 to August 2017.
• The current Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog is Indian economist Rajiv Kumar, who has been in the position since September 1, 2017, and holds the

• Arvind Panagariya, an Indian-American economist and professor at Columbia University, was the first Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog from January 2015 to August 2017.
• Rajiv Kumar, another Indian economist, took over as Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog in September 2017 and holds the rank and status of a Cabinet

• Amitabh Kant is the current head of the NITI Aayog.
• He started his position on February 17th, 2016, taking the place of Sindhushree Khull

• The NITI Aayog released the India Innovation Index 2019 on October 17, 2019, and it showed that Karnataka was the most innovative state in India.
• The NITI Aayog released the second edition of the India Innovation Index in January 2021, and Karnataka was again the top state.

• NITI Aayog’s report showed that in 2014-15, Bihar was the fastest-growing state in India.
• The Economic Survey 2021-22 reported that the highest growth rate in the year 2019-20 was in Madhya Pradesh (15.7%).
• After that, Manipur, Mizoram, Bihar and Tripura had growth rates of 15.1%, 15.1%, 12.4% and 12.3%

• In June 2019, NITI Aayog released the second edition of their State Health Index, which scored Bihar at 32.11. On December 27th, 2021, NITI Aayog released the fourth edition of this Index, called ‘Health States, Progressive India’.
• This Index ranked the States and Union Territories based on 24 health-related indicators.
• Kerala was the best-performing state in the health sector among the 19 larger states in 2019-20, with a score of 82.20. On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh was the worst-performing state, with a score of 30.57.
• Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan are at the bottom of the rankings with scores of 31.00, 36.72, and 41.33 respectively.
• Among the bigger states, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Telangana have the best rankings.

• All the facts about the Planning Commission of India are true.

• P. Chidambaram has never been the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. However, Dr. Manmohan Singh held this role from 1985 to 1987, Pranab Mukherjee from 1991 to 1996, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia from 2004 to 2014.

• Professor A.M.Khusro, N.K.P. Salve, and M.S. Ahluwalia were never the Chairperson of the Planning Commission. M.S. Ahluwalia was the Deputy Chairperson from July 6, 2004, to May 26, 2014.
• The structure of the Commission changed significantly since it started.
• The Prime Minister was the ex-officio Chairperson, and there was a nominated Deputy Chairperson with the same rank and status as a Cabinet Minister.

• Professor A.M. Khusro, N.K.P. Salve, and M.S. Ahluwalia have never been the head of the Planning Commission. M.S. Ahluwalia was the Deputy Chairman of the Commission from July 6th, 2004 to May 26th, 2014.
• There have been many changes to the Commission since it began.
• The Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman and the Deputy has the same rank and status as a Cabinet Minister.

• In India, the National Development Council and Parliament are linked to the process of planning.
• The Planning Commission makes plans which must be approved by the National Development Council.
• Once it is approved, the plan is presented in Parliament.

• The Planning Commission set up a group called Vision 2020 for India in June 2000 with Dr. S.P. Gupta leading the committee.
• This group had over 30 professionals from different backgrounds.
• The Report of the Committee focuses on two main topics, employment and education.

• In a nation, planning is adopted for the following purposes –
  1. For balanced socio-economic development.
  2. To broaden the benefits of development uniformly.
  3. To concentrate on removing the regional disparities.
  4. To make the maximum use of available resources.
  Hence all four statements are correct

• In imperative planning, the government makes economic decisions and supply and demand don’t have much power.
• In indicative planning, the state suggests and helps the market to work.
• Indicative planning helps the market, not replace it like in imperative planning, so it is used in market-based and mixed economies.

• Right now, India is borrowing a lot of money to pay for its public expenses. This money that the government borrows is called public debt.
• It comes from things like government bonds, treasury bills, help from other countries, short-term loans, and money from people’s savings.

• The Gadgil-Mukherjee Formula gives the population from 1971 the highest priority, at 60 percent. This formula was first used during the 8th Five Year Plan (1992-97) and it has been used ever since for distributing Central Plan Assistance. This formula gives different amounts of weightage to different criteria.
• 1. 1. 60 percent on the basis of population.
  1. 1. 25 percent on the basis of per capita income
  1. 1. 7.5 percent on the basis of fiscal management, tax effort, and progress with respect of national objectives
  1. 1. 7.5 percent on the basis of special problems.

• In October 1938, Subhash Chandra Bose, who was the President of the Congress then, set up the National Planning Committee.
• He asked Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to be the leader of the committee.

• Option (c) is the right answer because all the statements about Planning in India are true.

• Narayan Agarwal created “The Gandhian Plan” in 1944 which was based on the principles of Gandhian economics.
• The main idea of the plan was to promote small production and farming and to decentralize the economic system by having villages and small businesses be self-sufficient.

• Shriman Narayan Agarwal created ‘The Gandhian Plan’ in 1944 which was based on the ideas of Gandhian economics.
• This plan focused on the growth of small businesses and farming.
• The main point of the Gandhian Plan was to have a decentralized economic structure with villages and small businesses being the main sources of production.

• Mahatma Gandhi disagreed with the idea of Planned Development in India.
• He believed in a way of life that was simple and self-sufficient, that only used local resources and workers to make items for local use, and that had as little dependence on outside help as possible.

• In 1950, Jai Prakash Narayan created a plan based on Gandhi’s teachings to figure out how India should develop.
• Starting in 1954, he worked on the Sarvodaya Movement to create a society with equal rights for all.

• Gunnar Myrdal suggested the ‘Rolling Plan’ for less developed countries in his book ‘Indian Economic Planning in its Broader Setting’.
• This plan consists of three different plans: a plan for the current year, a plan for a fixed number of years (3, 4 or 5 years) that can be changed every year based on the economy’s needs, and a long-term perspective plan (10, 15 or 20 years).
• The Rolling Plan was beneficial because it was able to adjust targets, goals, estimates and allocations according to changing conditions in the country’s economy.

• Gunnar Myrdal suggested the Rolling Plan for developing countries in his book ‘Indian Economic Planning in its Broader Setting’.
• The plan had three parts: one for the current year, one for a few years (3-5), and one for the long-term (10-20).
• The Rolling Plan was flexible and could be adjusted to the economy’s changing needs, unlike the rigid Five Year Plans.

• Gunnar Myrdal was the person who came up with the idea of the rolling plan.
• However, when the Indian National Congress government took over in 1980, they decided not to use it and instead created a sixth plan.

• The Janta Party Government in 1978-79 introduced the ‘Rolling Plan’ concept for National Planning in India, which replaced the Congress government’s Fifth Five-Year Plan.
• This Rolling Plan could be changed to suit the needs of the economy as it was very flexible.

• The Janata Government created the Rolling Plan in 1978-83, which replaced the fifth five-year plan from 1977-78.

• The goal of India’s Five-Year Plan was to improve people’s quality of life by using the country’s resources efficiently, increasing production, creating jobs for everyone, reducing reliance on foreign aid, and becoming more self-reliant.

• The 12th Five-Year Plan ran from 2012-17 and had the goal of faster, sustainable, and more inclusive growth.
• The plan aimed for an 8% real GDP growth rate, 4% agriculture growth rate, and 10% manufacturing growth rate.
• The financial year 2016-17 was the last year of this plan.

• The 12th Five-Year Plan ran from 2012 to 2017 and its goal was to increase growth faster, more sustainably, and in a way that was more inclusive.
• The plan had three goals: an 8.0% real GDP growth rate, a 4.0% agriculture growth rate, and a 10.0% manufacturing growth rate.
• The 12th Five-Year Plan ended in 2017.

• Targets of the 12th Five-Year Plan: Six core indicators listed below reflect the vision of rapid, sustainable, and more inclusive growth of the Twelfth Plan: Economic Growth
• 1. Real GDP Growth Rate of 8.0 percent.
  2. Agriculture Growth Rate of 4.0 percent.
  3. Manufacturing Growth Rate of 10.0 per cent.
  4. Every State must have an average growth rate in the Twelfth Plan preferably higher than that achieved in the Eleventh Plan. Poverty and Employment
  5. Head-count ratio of consumption poverty to be reduced by 10 percentage points over the preceding estimates by the end of the Twelfth Plan.
  6. Generate 50 million new work opportunities in the nonfarm sector and provide skill certification to equivalent numbers during the Twelfth Plan.
  Hence, none of the given options could be taken as the correct answer.

• It was predicted that farming, forestry, and fishing would grow at a rate of four percent during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan.

• In the 12th Five-Year Plan, it was suggested that the GDP growth rate should be 9% on average each year.
• This goal was lowered to 8% by the National Development Council in December 2012.

• The 12th Five-Year Plan proposed a goal of 9% yearly average GDP growth.
• The National Development Council later changed this goal to 8% when they approved the plan in December 2012.

• In the 12th Five-Year Plan, the maximum amount was allocated to the social services sector. A total of 2664843 crore had been allocated for this, which was about 34.7 percent of the total outlay.
  An outlay of the12th plan was as follows :
  Sector Target                              Amount             Percentage (Rs. Cr.)
  1. Agriculture & Allied Sector        363273                              4.7
  2. Rural Development                    457464                              6.0
  3. Energy                                           1438466                           18.8
  4. Transport                                      1204172                            15.7
  5. Communications                         80984                               1.1
  6. Social services                              2664843                          34.7

• The government estimates that the infrastructure sector needs an investment of 55.7 lakh crore rupees (or US $ 1000 billion) in the 12th Five-Year Plan.

• The 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) was started with the goal of increasing growth in a faster, more sustainable, and more inclusive way.
• The 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) was focused on increasing growth quickly and inclusively.

• The 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) was created with the main goal of having faster, sustainable, and more equal growth.
• The theme of the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) was “towards faster and more inclusive growth”.

• B.S. Minhas wrote the book called ‘Planning and the Poor’.

• M. Visvesvaraya wrote the book ‘Planned Economy for India’, which was the first to suggest planning for India.
• In the book, he suggested a ten-year plan to double the income of the country, and he focused on industrialization to decrease the people’s reliance on farming.

• The 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) was focused on achieving faster and more inclusive growth.

• India’s 11th Five-Year Plan was from 2007 until 2012.
• Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh started the plan on December 18, 2007, and the National Development Council gave it the go-ahead the following day.

• India’s 11th Five-Year Plan was from 2007 to 2012. It was started by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on December 18, 2007, and accepted by the National Development Council one day later on December 19, 2007.

• The main idea behind the Eleventh Five Year Plan was to grow faster and more equally.

• The main idea of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan was to do things faster and involve more people.
• This plan ran from 2007 until 2012.

• The main idea behind the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-2012) was to make economic growth happen faster and include more people.

• The 11th Five-Year Plan says that if India can reach its growth rate goals and the population grows at 1.5 percent, the average Indian’s income will double in 10 years.

• During the Eleventh Five Year Plan, the most job growth was expected to be in the construction sector (8.27%).
• Jobs in the transport and communication, manufacturing, and agriculture sectors were also expected to grow by 7.6%, 4%, and 4%, respectively.

• The total cost of the 11th Plan was Rs 36,44,718 crore.
• The total cost of the 12th Five-Year Plan was Rs 76,69,807 crore.

• For the 11th Five-Year Plan, the most money was put towards social services, with the energy sector coming in second.

• During the 11th Five-Year Plan, the most money was spent by the Central, State, and Union Territories governments on social services.

• The NDC agreed to have a goal of 9% yearly growth in the country’s GDP for the 11th Plan.
• The Eleventh Plan expects the growth rate of agriculture to double from 2% to 4%, and the industrial growth rate to increase from 9.2% to between 10% and 11%.
• Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

• The growth of different sectors during the Eleventh Plan was estimated to be much higher than the Tenth Plan.
• Agriculture was expected to grow at 4% annually, and industrial growth was expected to increase from 9.2% to between 10 and 11%. Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

• The goal for the 11th Five-Year Plan was for the GDP to increase by 9.0 percent each year.
• The growth rate that was actually achieved was 8.0 percent.

• The Eleventh Five Year Plan emphasizes growth that includes reducing poverty, offering more job opportunities, and decreasing gender inequality but does not focus on making the stock market stronger.

• The main focus of the 11th Five Year Plan for the education sector was ‘compulsory elementary education’.
• Five objectives were set to be achieved by the end of the plan, including reducing the dropout rate of children from 52.2% to 20% from 2003-2004 to 2011-12.
• Making sure primary schools have a certain level of education for everyone.
• Getting 85% of 7-year-olds and older to be able to read by 2011-12.
• Lowering the difference in literacy levels between genders to only 10% by 2011-12.
• Increasing the amount of students in higher education from 10% to 15% by 2011-12.

• The National Development Council has approved the 11th Plan, which includes plans to create eight new IITs from 2007 to 2012.
• This is to give more talented students the chance to join the IIT system and provide enough people to help the economy grow.

• The Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) wanted to measure the progress of certain key indicators of development, in addition to aiming for an average 8 percent annual growth rate.
• However, this target was eventually lowered to 7 percent.
• In the end, the Tenth Plan had an actual average annual growth rate of 7.6 percent.

• The Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) had set measurable goals for a few key parts of development, as well as a goal of 8% average annual growth.
• However, the mid-term appraisal of the 10th plan lowered this growth rate goal to 7%. In the end, the actual annual growth rate during the Tenth Plan was 7.6%.

• The 10th Five-Year Plan lasted from 2002 to 2007, ending in 2007.

• From 2002 to 2007, India’s tenth five-year plan was created by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

• The Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007) had goals to measure progress in human development, in addition to an 8 percent GDP growth.
• These goals included reducing poverty by 5 percentage points and providing gainful employment to those joining the workforce during the plan period.
• It also aimed to get all children in school by 2003 and raise the literacy rate to 75 percent.
• Option (a) is the correct answer.

• The allocation percentage of different sectors in the Tenth Plan outlay was as follows :
  Sector Allocation         percentage
  Energy                                     26.47
  Social services                       22.79
  Transport                               14.31
  Communication                    6.43

• The plan for the next five years expected communication to increase by 15%, financial services to increase by 11.69%, manufacturing to increase by 9.82%, and trade to increase by 9.44%.
• Agriculture was expected to grow by 3.97% during the same period.

• The growth rate of different crops during the Tenth Five Year
  The plans were as follows :
  Crop Growth               Rate (%)
  Pulses and oil seeds          4.29
  Fruits and vegetables        2.97
  Cereals                                 1.28
  Other crops                         3.58

• In the Tenth Five Year Plan investment rate was higher than the savings rate.
  Tenth Plan
  Domestic savings rate (as a percentage of GDP) – 26.84
  Investment rate (as a percentage of GDP) – 32.10

• The economic growth during 2000-02 was only about half of what was expected in the Tenth Plan.

• The government created a plan for the period of 1997-2002 which included the goal of achieving growth while being fair and equitable.
• It was necessary to combine economic growth with policies that would benefit poorer people and address the inequalities of the past.

• The Ninth Five-Year Plan aimed for a yearly growth rate of 6.5%.
• It was made when the United Front Government was in power and it focused on achieving growth that was fair for everyone.
• Unfortunately, the actual growth rate was only 5.4%.

• Target and actual annual economic growth rates under different Five Year Plans are as follows :
  Five-Year Plan              Target              Actual
  First Plan(1951-56)             2.1%                     3.6%
  Second Plan (1956-61)       4.5%                     4.3%
  Third Plan (1961-66)          5.6%                     2.8%
  Fourth Plan (1969-74)        5.7%                     3.3%
  Fifth Plan (1974-79)            4.4%                    4.8%
  Sixth Plan (1980-85)           5.2%                    5.7%
  Seventh Plan (1985-90)      5.0%                    6.0%
  Eighth Plan (1992-97)         5.6%                    6.8%
  Ninth Plan (1997-2002)      6.5%                    5.4%
  Tenth Plan (2002-07)         8.0%                    7.6%
  Eleventh Plan (2007-12)     9.0%                    8.0%
  Twelfth Plan (2012-17)        8.0%                     NA

• The 10th five-year plan (2002-2007) led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh was the most successful one in terms of growth rate.

• The 10th five-year plan (2002-2007) had the most growth during this time period, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh leading the way.

• During the Eleventh Five Year Plan, India had the highest rate of growth in its GDP per person.
• The Plan wanted to have a 9% growth in GDP, so its per-capita GDP would double in less than ten years, which was expected to grow at around 7.6% each year.

• The correct match of List-1 and List-2 is as follows :
  Plan Growth Rate in U.P. (%)
  Sixth Plan- 3.9
  Seventh Plan – 5.7
  Eighth Plan – 3.2
  Ninth Plan – 2.5

From 1951 to 2017, seven years did not have any Five Year Plans in India. These years are:

• For the years 1966-69, there were three plans which were called “Plan Holiday”.
• In 1978-79, there was a Rolling Plan. In 1979-80, no plan was implemented.
• In 1990-92, there were two Annual Plans.
• This was because the Eighth Plan was postponed due to political issues at the Centre.
• The last Five Year Plan of India was the Twelfth Five Year Plan which was from 2012 to 2017

• The Third Five-Year Plan ended on March 31, 1966, and the Fourth Five-Year Plan started on April 1, 1969.
• For the three years in between, there was no Five Year Plan, and instead, three Annual Plans were introduced.
• This period from 1966 to 1969 was called the ‘Plan Holiday’ in the history of India’s planning.

• A study done by the Planning Commission found that in the first two years of the 8th Five Year Plan (1992-97), the growth rate of employment in the organized sector was only 0.36%, much lower than the target of 2.6%.
• The rate of job growth every year stayed far lower than the goal set for the rest of the 8th Plan.
• This didn’t change in the 9th Five-Year Plan either.
• Other studies found that although the economy in India grew after it was deregulated, there was no improvement in the amount of jobs.
• It was noticed that in the 1990s, the organized manufacturing sector had very little job growth.
• The rate of employment growth dropped to around 1% from 1960 to 1990 when it had been a steady 2%.
• This makes the 1990s the ‘decade of jobless growth’ in India.

• In 1975, the Indian Government created the Twenty Point Programme (TPP) with the goal of increasing agricultural and industrial production, removing poverty, and improving the lives of regular citizens.
• It was updated in 1982 and 1986, and again in 2006 to reflect the current economic changes of the 21st Century.

• The core sector of the plan includes some key industries like electricity, steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas, and fertilizers.
• These have a large influence on the overall economic and industrial activities.
• Moreover, the core sector symbolizes the financial foundation of the Indian economy.

• Even though India shifted to a market economy in 1991, it still pursued national economic planning.
• The Five Year Plans gave a long-term view of the economy while still being market-friendly.
• However, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government has ended the Five-Year Plans and the 12th Plan (2012-17) was the last one.
• The NITI Aayog has taken the place of the Planning Commission and has created a three-year action plan as part of a seven-year strategy and a fifteen-year vision document.

• The New Economic Policy from 1991 has given the private sector a bigger role and the government has created an environment for development and given it a certain direction.
• This is why statements (a), (b), and (c) are true about the industry sector’s decreasing importance in the planning process.
• However, industrial, agricultural, and rural development are still top priorities for the nation, so (d) is the correct answer.

• Article 40 in Part IV of the Constitution talks about Panchayati Raj.
• It states that the village should be seen as the main unit for planning.
• The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, of 1993 was brought in to make Panchayati Raj a reality so that bottom-up planning could be achieved.

• The Union Government set up the Watershed Development Fund in 2000 with a total cost of Rs.
• 200 crore (Rs. 100 crore from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rs. 100 crore from NABARD).
• The Fund was initially designed to help with integrated development projects in 100 chosen districts.
• The Fund has two parts, loans and grants.
• Two-thirds of the Fund is for loans to the State for watershed development and the remaining one-third is for grant-based activities such as promotional efforts and capacity building.

• The chronological order of the given statements is as follows :
  1. India became a member of the IMF. (1945)
  2. The first devaluation of the Indian currency after independence took place. (1949)
  3. First Five Year Plan was submitted to Parliament. (8 Dec. 1951)
  4. The National Development Council was set up. (6 Aug. 1952)

• Yojana is a magazine that comes out once a month and talks about social and economic topics.
• It was first published in 1957 and is run by the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• Its Chief Editor is Mr. Khuswant Singh.