SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 8 of 99

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

During the period of 1947 to 1990, how many five-year plans were completed?

(a)7
(b)6
(c)8
(d)9

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Lay the plans out against the calendar and seven of them had begun and finished before 1990.

First 1951-56, Second 1956-61, Third 1961-66. Then a plan holiday: three annual plans from 1966 to 1969, after the 1965 war, two bad harvests and the devaluation of the rupee.

Fourth 1969-74, Fifth 1974-78, Sixth 1980-85, Seventh 1985-90. The Fifth was wound up a year early in 1978, and 1978-80 again ran as annual plans.

Three plus four is seven completed plans by 1990 — option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
6 — Six is what you get by stopping at the Sixth Plan's end in 1985, or by refusing to count the Fifth because it was cut short. The Seventh finished in 1990, inside the window, so it counts.
(c)
8 — Eight counts the Eighth Plan, which did not begin until 1992. The two years after 1990 were annual plans, not a five-year plan.
(d)
9 — Nine is further out still: the Ninth Plan ran from 1997 to 2002, well past the end of the period the stem gives.

Concept

India's five-year plans were drawn up by the Planning Commission, set up in 1950 by a cabinet resolution, and approved by the National Development Council.

The numbering does not track the calendar cleanly, and that gap is what this question is really testing. Two interruptions broke the sequence: the plan holiday of 1966-69, and the annual plans of 1978-80 after the Fifth Plan was terminated early. Two more annual plans followed in 1990-92.

Planning by five-year plan ended with the Twelfth Plan, 2012-17, the Planning Commission having been replaced by NITI Aayog on 1 January 2015.

The stem's window opens at 1947, but planning did not. The First Plan began in 1951, so the first four years of independence carry no plan at all.

Count from 1951 and the arithmetic is straightforward.

Key facts

The First Five-Year Plan ran from 1951 to 1956.
The years 1966 to 1969 were a plan holiday of three annual plans.
The Fifth Plan was terminated in 1978, and 1978-80 ran as annual plans.
The Seventh Plan ended in 1990 and the Eighth Plan began only in 1992.

Study next

The model or objective attached to each five-year planThe plan holiday of 1966-69 and the reasons for itThe Planning Commission, the National Development Council and NITI Aayog

Common traps

Counting from 1947 rather than 1951, when planning actually began.
Assuming an unbroken run of five-year blocks and forgetting the two spells of annual plans.

Plans are asked by their number, their model or their slogan, so build a table with a line for each plan and revise across it.

The Harrod-Domar model is attached to a plan on 18 Sep 2024, 09:00 at General Awareness Q.12, and the Mahalanobis model on 11 Sep 2024, 16:00 at General Awareness Q.23.

The Garibi Hatao initiative is asked on 10 Sep 2024, 09:00 at General Awareness Q.5, and the First Plan's actual growth rate on 12 Sep 2024, 12:30 at General Awareness Q.25.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.