Indian Administration

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Machinery for Planning

Planning in India

Although the era of economic planning started in India on 11 April 1951 with the launching of the First Five-Year Plan, the concept of planning was well known to Indian leaders. Even before Independence our leaders had stressed the need of planning for the eradication of the poverty of the masses. In 1931, M. Visvesvarayya, emphasized the need of planning in his book, Planned Economy of India. He suggested 10-year plans for doubling the income of the country. In 1937, Congress ministers of the provinces tried to put these ideas into practice. In 1938, the national planning committee was set up under the chairmanship of Jawaharlal Nehru. This committee prepared a plan for the economic development of ...