Read the following Assertion (A) and Reason (R) carefully and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): India adopted import substitution during the planning era. Reason (R): This was to protect infant domestic industries from foreign competition.

Correct — A. A is true. Through the first seven Five-Year Plans India followed an inward-looking trade strategy called import substitution: making at home what it had imported, with tariffs and quotas holding imports back.

R is true and explains A. Protection rested on the view that young domestic industries could not yet compete with goods from developed economies, and would learn to compete if shielded for a time. That is the infant-industry argument.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A. — R does explain A: protecting young domestic industries was the stated reason for import substitution, not a side fact. NCERT's account ties the protection directly to industries not yet able to compete.
• (c)
  A is true but R is false. — R is true: shielding young domestic industries from foreign competition is exactly how planning-era protection was justified. This option would fit only if R were false.
• (d)
  A is false but R is true. — A is true: import substitution was India's trade strategy through the first seven plans, enforced with tariffs and quotas. Calling it false contradicts the standard account of planned development.

Import substitution means replacing imports with domestic production, for example making vehicles in India instead of importing them. India enforced it with tariffs, taxes that make imported goods dearer, and quotas, caps on the quantity that may be imported.

NCERT names a second motive: planners feared scarce foreign exchange would be spent on imported luxury goods. Little thought went to promoting exports until the mid-1980s, and the 1991 reforms began dismantling this protection.

Key facts

• Import substitution was India's trade strategy in the first seven Five-Year Plans.
• Protection took two forms: tariffs (a tax on imports) and quotas (a cap on the quantity imported).
• The case for protection was the infant-industry argument: shielded domestic industries would learn to compete in time.
• The Mahalanobis model, with its stress on heavy industry, was the basis of the Second Five-Year Plan (1956-61).

Common traps

• Choosing 'R is not the correct explanation' because R reads like background, when here R is the stated reason for A.

No directly related past PYQ was found.