Which Five-Year Plan focused on heavy industries?

Correct — B. The Second Five-Year Plan (1956–61) was drawn up on the Mahalanobis model.

That model put public investment into basic and heavy industries, so that India could make its own capital goods and sustain growth: option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  First — The First Plan (1951–56) put agriculture first. It gave top priority to farming, including irrigation and power projects, before the Second Plan's turn to heavy industry.
• (c)
  Third — The Third Plan (1961–66) aimed at self-reliance. It is remembered for falling short of its targets after the 1962 and 1965 wars and a drought.
• (d)
  Fourth — The Fourth Plan (1969–74) followed a three-year Plan holiday. Its stated aims were growth with stability and progress towards self-reliance, not a heavy-industry push.

India's early plans each had a lead priority. The First Plan stressed agriculture, and the Second Plan turned to industry.

P. C. Mahalanobis, founder of the Indian Statistical Institute, framed the Second Plan's model: invest first in industries that make capital goods.

The public-sector steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur were set up under the Second Plan.

Key facts

• Second Five-Year Plan: 1956–61, based on the Mahalanobis model, with emphasis on basic and heavy industries.
• First Five-Year Plan: 1951–56, with top priority to agriculture.
• The steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur were set up during the Second Plan.
• Three annual plans (1966–69) came between the Third and Fourth Plans, the period called the Plan holiday.

Common traps

• Picking the Third Plan because it aimed at self-reliance: the heavy-industry strategy began with the Second.
• Crediting the First Plan with industrialisation: it put agriculture first.

No directly related past PYQ was found.