Planning for a futureless economy : critique of the ' 6 ' th plan and its development strategy

Among academic circles at least, the issues of planning arouse feelings of curiosity and, often, of excitement. Plans are instruments of social and economic change; they are also the crystal balls through which a society perceives its future. To political parties and their leaders, plans are devices ('instruments of delusion', a cynic may say,) to persuade the public to vote for them.

The Draft Plan for 1978-83 was available around the last week of March 1978. Since a new political party and almost a new Planning Commission have pioneered it, it is imbibed with more than ordinary interest among students of economics and economic affairs. Since the three broad objectives-employment expansion, removal of acute poverty and distribution of identified public goods are of vital concern to the country, it is necessary to examine the Plan and its strategy very carefully. The methods design ed to reach the objectives also deserve a thorough probing. In fact, the New Plan represents a landmark in that it is now confidently claimed that the future course of planning will be different from that in the past and that a new mil lenium will dawn as a result and fairly soon.