The Five Year Plan was first launched in
- (a)China
- (b)USSR
- (c)India
- (d)Bhutan
Correct — B, USSR. The idea of national Five Year Plans originated in the Soviet Union — the USSR launched the world's first Five Year Plan in 1928 under Joseph Stalin, with its central planning agency Gosplan setting production targets. India later borrowed the model and began its own First Five Year Plan in 1951. So among the options, the USSR is where Five Year Planning was first launched.
- (a)China — China adopted Five Year Plans only from 1953, a quarter-century after the USSR pioneered the model in 1928.
- (c)India — India's First Five Year Plan began in 1951 — India adapted the Soviet idea rather than originating it.
- (d)Bhutan — Bhutan started Five Year Plans only in 1961, decades after the Soviet Union's first plan.
Centralised Five Year Planning was a Soviet innovation: Gosplan launched the USSR's first plan in 1928 to drive rapid state-led industrialisation. India set up its Planning Commission in 1950 and adopted the framework, launching the First Plan (1951-56) on the Harrod-Domar model with a focus on agriculture and irrigation.
In an Indian exam the reflex answer is 'India', which is the trap. The question asks where the concept first appeared in the world — that is the USSR.
- The USSR launched the world's first Five Year Plan in 1928 under Stalin; Gosplan was its planning body.
- India's Planning Commission was set up in 1950; the First Five Year Plan ran 1951-56.
- India's First Plan followed the Harrod-Domar model and stressed agriculture and irrigation.
- China's first Five Year Plan began in 1953.
Five Year Planning began in the USSR (1928); India adopted it in 1951.
- Answering 'India' by habit — the model was first launched in the USSR.
- Confusing when India started planning (1951) with when the idea originated (1928).
A one-line recall question — the answer is the USSR, the pioneer of Five Year Planning.
Which one of the following Five-Year Plans recognised human development as the core of all developmental efforts?
- (a) The Third Five-Year Plan
- (b) The Fifth Five-Year Plan
- (c) The Sixth Five-Year Plan
- (d) The Eighth Five-Year Plan
Answer(d) The Eighth Five-Year Plan
Same theme — India's Five Year Plans. UPSC asks which plan made human development its core (the Eighth); this NDA item asks where Five Year Planning first began (the USSR).
Before the inception of the First Five year Plan, which among the following Plans were initiated in India? 1. Bombay Plan 2. Peoples Plan 3. Sarvodaya Plan 4. Gandhian Plan
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 1 and 3 only
- (c) 3 and 4 only
- (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Same area — the history of planning in India. That NDA item lists the pre-Independence plans that preceded the First Plan; this one places the global origin of Five Year Planning in the USSR.
- practice — not a real PYQ
India's First Five Year Plan (1951-56) was primarily based on which model?
- (a)Mahalanobis model
- (b)Harrod-Domar model
- (c)Rao-Manmohan model
- (d)Gadgil formula
Answer(b) Harrod-Domar model — the growth model underlying the First Plan.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which body prepared India's Five Year Plans until 2014?
- (a)NITI Aayog
- (b)Finance Commission
- (c)Planning Commission
- (d)Reserve Bank of India
Answer(c) Planning Commission — replaced by NITI Aayog in 2015.