With reference to India’s Five-Year Plans, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1. From the Second Five-Year Plan, there was a determined thrust towards substitution of basic and capital good industries.
2. The Fourth Five-Year Plan adopted the objective of correcting the earlier trend of increased concentration of wealth and economic power.
3. In the Fifth Five-Year Plan, for the first time, the financial sector was included as an integral part of the Plan.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Explanation
Statement 1 is correct: The Second Five-Year Plan (1956–61), based on the Mahalanobis model, focused on heavy industrialization and domestic import-substitution for basic and capital goods industries (steel, heavy electricals, and machine building).
Statement 2 is correct: The Fourth Five-Year Plan (1969–74) aimed at ‘growth with stability’ and explicitly sought to correct the concentration of wealth and economic power through redistributive policies and legislation like the MRTP Act (1969).
Statement 3 is incorrect: The Eighth Five-Year Plan (1992–97), following the 1991 economic reforms and the Narasimham Committee recommendations, systematically integrated financial sector reforms as an integral structural component of the Plan, not the Fifth Plan (which focused on Garibi Hatao and poverty alleviation).
Therefore, statements 1 and 2 are correct — Option A.