Read the following Assertion (A) and Reason (R) carefully and choose the correct option. Assertion (A): Self-reliance was a major objective of India's early planning era. Reason (R): India sought to reduce dependence on foreign aid and imports post-independence.

Correct — A. A is true. NCERT's Indian Economic Development lists the goals of the Five Year Plans as growth, modernisation, self-reliance and equity, and says the first seven plans gave importance to self-reliance.

R is true and is the reason. NCERT defines self-reliance as avoiding imports of goods India could produce itself, needed to reduce dependence on foreign countries, especially for food. So option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A. — NCERT ties the two directly: self-reliance meant avoiding imports to reduce dependence on foreign countries. R is the reason for A, not a separate fact.
• (c)
  A is true but R is false. — R is true. NCERT records the fear that dependence on imported food, foreign technology and foreign capital could expose India's policies to foreign interference.
• (d)
  A is false but R is true. — A is true. Self-reliance is one of the four goals NCERT lists for the Five Year Plans, and the first seven plans gave it importance.

India's planners set four goals: growth, modernisation, self-reliance and equity. NCERT notes that not every plan gave them equal weight.

Self-reliance meant producing at home what could be produced at home. NCERT calls this understandable for a people recently freed from foreign domination.

NCERT also records the fear that dependence on imported food, foreign technology and foreign capital could expose India's policies to foreign interference.

In trade it took the form of import substitution.

Key facts

• NCERT lists four goals of the Five Year Plans: growth, modernisation, self-reliance and equity.
• The first seven Five Year Plans gave importance to self-reliance, meaning avoiding imports of goods that could be produced in India.
• NCERT: the policy was considered necessary to reduce dependence on foreign countries, especially for food.
• In trade, the first seven plans followed a policy of import substitution.

Common traps

• Choosing 'R is not the correct explanation' because a goal and a motive look like separate facts, when NCERT gives the motive as the reason for the goal.
• Confusing self-reliance with self-sufficiency in food grains, which NCERT credits to the Green Revolution.

No directly related past PYQ was found.