RAS question
Which Five Year Plan is known as the 'Mahalanobis Plan'?
Correct answer: (D) Second Five Year Plan.
The Second Five Year Plan is known as the Mahalanobis Plan because it followed the economic development model associated with Professor P.C. Mahalanobis.
Explanation
The Second Five Year Plan (1956-61) is called the Mahalanobis Plan because it was based on the two-sector model developed by Professor P.C. Mahalanobis. Its core economic emphasis was heavy industries and import substitution. The Press Information Bureau, Government of India links Mahalanobis with the economic development model followed in India's Second Five Year Plan. That is why, in exam terms, the name is not just a tribute to an economist; it points to the plan's chosen development strategy and its model-based approach to industrialisation.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The Fourth Five Year Plan is not the Mahalanobis Plan; it is linked instead with growth with stability.
- (B) The Third Five Year Plan is not the Mahalanobis Plan; its aim was to make the economy self-sustaining.
- (C) The First Five Year Plan is not the Mahalanobis Plan; it is connected with the Harrod-Domar Model.
Concept
This tests the Indian Economy concept of matching Five Year Plans with their underlying development models and policy emphasis. It recurs in RAS-style economy questions because plan names, periods and model associations are compact ways to test post-Independence planning.