Reshaped Fifth Five Year Plan: Response to Changed Environment

This paper views the exercise contained in the Final Fifth Five Year Plan (of India) as a response of the planners for the revision of the Draft Fifth Five Year Plan due to several changes in the environment both within India and in the International economy during the first two-and-a-half years of this Plan. A few significant environmental changes have been selected, the implications of these changes for the Draft Plan explored, and finally the stand taken in the Final Plan explained and evaluated. The timing as well as contents of the Final Fifth Plan, as a document in political economy, has been profoundly influenced by the decisions taken at the political level. The Final Plan which has emerged in the process is in many ways a substantial improvement on the Draft Plan. However, it has not taken into account a number of other changes in the environment pointed out in this paper, which require immediate attention and action. A number of assumptions made in the Final Plan might be invalidated which would affect the chances of fulfillment of the objectives and programmes of this Plan.