4.8         ndian     onom
     a deflationary package of measures). Since then             development via the Washington Consensus
     the UK never went for planning.18                           (1985), the World Trade Organisation (1995)
          Though the first use of economic planning              and the Santiago/New Consensus (1998) only
     as an instrument of economic progress was done              indicative planning has remained possible with the
     by the USA (with the Tennessee Valley Authority             state playing only a marginal role in the economy,
     in 1916 at the regional level), it never went for           especially in the areas of social importance (i.e.,
     a formal national planning. In the 1940s, some              nutrition, healthcare, drinking water, education,
     economists had suggested in favour of the use               social security, etc.).
     of national planning. We may have a reflex of                    There are still many other types of planning
     indicative planning in the USA if we look at                depending upon the point of view we are looking
     the Presidential Reports which come after regular           at. For example, from the territorial point of view,
     intervals. These reports are just ‘benchmarks’ in           planning could be regional or national. From the
     the area of resource utilisation and governmental           political point of view planning could be central,
     announcements of its objectives—basically trying            state or local. Similarly, from the participatory
     to motivate the private sector towards the area of          point of view, planning has been categorised into
     public objectives. The indicative planning as it            centralised and decentralised. Again, from the
     is practised by the mixed economy, any growth               temporal point of view planning could be long-
     target could only be achieved once the public and           term or short-term (in relative sense). Finally,
     the private enterprises worked in tandem. This              from the value point of view planning could be
     is why besides the plan targets, the governments            economic or developmental.
     need to announce some set of indicative policies                 A major classification of planning is done
     to encourage and motivate the private sector to             on the basis of societal emphasis. The type of
     accelerate their economic activities in the direction       planning which gives less emphasis upon the
     of the plan targets.                                        social and institutional dimensions is known as
          After the Second World War, almost all the             systems planning. In such planning, the planners
     newly independent countries adopted the route of            just search for the best possible results in relation
     planned development. Though they followed an                to the established goals giving less importance
     overall model of the indicative planning, many of           to issues like caste, creed, religion, region,
     them had serious inclination towards imperative             language, marriage, family, etc. Opposed to it,
     planning. As in the case of India, the heavy                the normative planning gives due importance to
     bias towards imperative planning could only be              the socio-institutional factors. This is a planning
     reformed once the process of economic reforms               from social-technical point of view, but only
     was started in 1991.                                        suitable for a country which has lesser degree of
          Today, as there are mostly only mixed                  social diversities (naturally, not fit for the Indian
     economies around the world, any country’s                   conditions). But in the coming years there was a
     development planning has to be only of the                  shift in the very thinking of policymakers. The
     indicative type. After the revival of the role and          Economic Survey 2010–11 is probably the first
     the need of market in promoting growth and                  document of the Government of India which
                                                                 advocates the need for a normative approach
       18.  Though the planning agencies the National Economic   to planning in India. It is believed that until a
            Development Council (NEDC) and the Economic          programme/scheme run by the governments are
            Development Committees (EDCs) continued functioning,
            it was in 1992 that the NEDC was abolished (Collins  not able to connect with the customs, traditions
            Dictionary of Economics, 2006).                      and ethos of the population, their acceptability