Which one among the following plans is also known as Mahalanobis Plan?
- (a)First Five Year Plan
- (b)Second Five Year Plan
- (c)Third Five Year Plan
- (d)Sixth Five Year Plan
Correct — B, Second Five Year Plan. The Second Plan (1956-61) was framed on the growth model of the statistician P. C. Mahalanobis, which argued that rapid, self-reliant development needed heavy priority on basic and capital-goods industries. It is therefore popularly called the Mahalanobis Plan, and it launched the public-sector steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur and gave shape to the 1956 Industrial Policy Resolution.
- (a)First Five Year Plan — The First Plan (1951-56) was based on the Harrod-Domar model and gave priority to agriculture and irrigation to overcome post-Partition food shortages — it is not the Mahalanobis Plan.
- (c)Third Five Year Plan — The Third Plan (1961-66) aimed at a 'self-reliant and self-generating' economy but was derailed by the 1962 and 1965 wars and drought; it is not named after Mahalanobis.
- (d)Sixth Five Year Plan — The Sixth Plan (1980-85) is associated with direct poverty removal ('Garibi Hatao') and modernisation, not with the Mahalanobis heavy-industry model.
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, founder of the Indian Statistical Institute, devised a two-sector (and later four-sector) growth model that made investment in heavy and capital-goods industries the engine of long-run growth. His framework was the intellectual basis of India's Second Five Year Plan, which is why the two names are used interchangeably.
The trap is to link 'Mahalanobis' to whichever plan a student remembers as 'industrial'. The reliable anchor is that Mahalanobis = heavy-industry strategy = the Second Plan (1956-61), the plan that built the big public-sector steel plants. The First Plan's model was Harrod-Domar, not Mahalanobis.
- The Second Five Year Plan (1956-61) used the Mahalanobis model and stressed heavy and basic industries.
- It established the public-sector steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur.
- P. C. Mahalanobis founded the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata.
- The First Plan (1951-56), by contrast, was based on the Harrod-Domar model with priority to agriculture.
- The First Plan used the Harrod-Domar model, not the Mahalanobis model — do not swap them.
- 'Industrial' does not automatically mean 'Mahalanobis'; the specific plan is the Second (1956-61).
Asked by pairing a Five Year Plan with its guiding model (Harrod-Domar vs Mahalanobis) or its sectoral priority.
In the context of India's Five Year Plans, a shift in the pattern of industrialization, with lower emphasis on heavy industries and more on infrastructure begins in
- (a) Fourth Plan
- (b) Sixth Plan
- (c) Eighth Plan
- (d) Tenth Plan
Answer(b) Sixth Plan — it began moving away from the heavy-industry emphasis of the Mahalanobis era.
UPSC tests the same heavy-industry planning strategy from the other end — where India began to move away from the Mahalanobis heavy-industry model.
Which among the following statements with regard to Five Year Plans in India is/are correct? 1. The First and Ninth five year plans accorded high priority to agriculture 2. The Third Plan was based on the Harrod-Domar Model 3. Seventh Plan focused on food, work and productivity 4. The Ninth five year plan emphasized on massive investments in public sector
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 1 and 3
- (c) 3 and 4
- (d) 1, 2 and 4
Answer(b) 1 and 3
A previous NDA GAT item on the priorities of specific Five Year Plans (agriculture, models, food-and-work) — the same plan-by-plan knowledge tested here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The First Five Year Plan of India was based on which growth model?
- (a)Mahalanobis model
- (b)Harrod-Domar model
- (c)Wage-goods model
- (d)Gadgil model
Answer(b) Harrod-Domar model — the First Plan (1951-56) emphasised agriculture and used the Harrod-Domar framework.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The public-sector steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur were set up mainly during which plan?
- (a)First Five Year Plan
- (b)Second Five Year Plan
- (c)Fourth Five Year Plan
- (d)Sixth Five Year Plan
Answer(b) Second Five Year Plan — its heavy-industry (Mahalanobis) thrust built these steel plants.