onomi lannin 4.5
1. Regional Planning through the introduction of economic planning
It was at the regional level that planning was used at the national level. The nature and scope of
as a part of development policy by any country Soviet planning (called the Gosplan) will have its
for the first time. It was the USA which started direct or indirect bearings on all those countries
the first regional planning after the Tennessee which went for economic planning, be state or
Valley Authority (TVA) was set up in 1916— capitalist or mixed economies. India was to have
for a large-scale rehabilitation in south-eastern direct influence of Soviet planning on its planning
USA covering parts of seven states. With the process. In the first Soviet Plan, heavy industries
primary aim of flood control, soil conservation was favoured over light industry, and consumer
and providing electricity, the TVA/the regional goods were the residual sector after all the other
plan was also involved in many related activities priorities had been met. We see the same emphasis
such as industrial development, forestry, wildlife in the Indian planning process.11 The Soviet
conservation, town planning, construction of road model of economic planning spread to the East
and rail, encouraging sound agricultural practices European countries, especially after World War II
and malaria control in the defined region.9 The and found its purest form of such planning in the
US experience of regional planning became People’s Republic of China (1949). During the
such a success in realising its well-defined goals early 1940s, the concept of national planning was
that it emerged as a role model and an object of borrowed by France and the world saw national
inspiration for many countries around the world planning being initiated by a hitherto capitalist
in the coming decades—the Damodar Valley economy as well as by a non-centralised political
Corporation (DVC) in India (1948), the Volta system (i.e., democratic system). France started
River Project in Ghana (1966), etc. economic planning at the national level after
2. National Planning announcing itself as a mixed economy.
The official experiment in the area of national
types of plannIng
planning is rooted in the Bolshevik Revolution
of Russia (1917)—the Soviet Union. Dissatisfied After the first national planning was started by the
with the pace of industrialisation, it was in Soviet Union, many more countries followed it,
1928 that Joseph Stalin announced its policy but with variations in their methods and practices.
of central planning for the Soviet Union. The Though there are many variants of planning the
collectivisation of agriculture and forced-draft most important one is on the basis of the type
industrialisation were other radical new policy of economic organisation (i.e., state economy,
initiatives announced by Stalin besides economic mixed economy). During the course of evolution,
planning in 1928.10 The Soviet Union went for its planning has been classified into two types, based
first five year plan for the period 1928–33 and the
world was to have its first experience of national 11. Rakesh Mohan ‘Industrial Policy and Controls’ in the
Bimal Jalan (eds), The Indian Economy: Problems
planning. The famous Soviet slogan “great leap
and Prospects, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2004.,
forward” was initiated for rapid industrialisation p. 101. Also see Bipan Chandra et. al., India After
Independence, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2000,
9. leong, G.C. and Morgan, G.C., Human and Economic pp. 341–42, as well as A. Vaidyanathan, ‘The Indian
Geography, oxford University Press, oxford, 1982, Economy Since Independence (1947–70)’ in Dharma
p. 145. kumar (ed.), The Cambridge Economic History of
10. Alec Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, 3rd India, Vol. II, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
ed., Penguin Books, Baltimore, USA, 1990, p. 139. 1983, pp. 949–50.