5.22        ndian     onom
         (xi) National Seeds Programme (NSP)—                  unfavourable balance of payments situation.
               1983                                            Heavy foreign loans on which the governmental
        (xii) Intensive         Pulses       Development       expenditures depended heavily during the period,
               Programme (IPDP)—1983                           the economy failed to service.76 The Plan was not
       (xiii) Intensive        Cotton        Development       laid with a strong financial strategy, which put the
               Programme (ICDP)—1983                           economy into a crisis of unsustainable balance of
                                                               payments and fiscal deficits.77 India basically tried
       (xiv) Khadi and Village Industries Programme
                                                               to attend its growth prospects by commercial
               (KVIP)—1983
                                                               and other external borrowings on hard terms,
        (xv) Programme for Depressed Areas (PDA)—              which the economy failed to sustain. In the
               1983                                            process of liberalisation, an expansion of internal
       (xvi) Special Programme for Women and                   demand for the home market was permitted
               Children (SPWC)—1983                            without generating equitable levels of exports
                                                               and ultimately Indian imports were financed by
     Seventh Plan
                                                               the costly external borrowings. Such an ‘inward
     The Plan (1985–90) emphasised on rapid                    looking’ fiscal policy proved to be a mistake when
     foodgrain production, increased employment                the external aid environment for the economy was
     creation and productivity in general. The basic           deteriorating.78
     tenets of planning, i.e., growth, modernisation,
     self-reliance and social justice remained as the          Two Annual Plans
     guiding principles.75 The Jawahar Rojgar Yojana           The Eighth Plan (whose term would have been
     (JRY) was launched in 1989 with the motive                1990–95) could not take off due to the ‘fast-
     to create wage-employment for the rural poors.            changing political situation at the Centre’.79
     Some of the already existing programmes, such as          The pathbreaking and restructuring-oriented
     the IRDP, CADP, DPAP and the DDP were re-                 suggestions of the Eighth Plan, the sweeping
     oriented.                                                 economic reforms ensuing around the world, as
          Till date, the government has been evaluating        well as the fiscal imbalances of the late 1980s were
     the achievements of all the developmental                 the other important reasons for the delay in the
     programmes, courtesy the youngest PM of                   launch of the Eighth Plan. The new government,
     India. Somehow, democracy and development                 which assumed power at the centre in June 1991,
     got connected with a major change in the                  decided to commence the Eighth Plan for the
     thinking of the political elite, which decided to         period 1992–97 and that the fiscals 1990–91 and
     go in for democratic decentralisation to promote
     development. It laid strong foundations for itself          76.  Similar financial strategy to promote growth and
                                                                      development had led the Soviet Union to economic
     as the constitutional amendments—the 73rd and                    collapse via the balance of payment crisis during
     74th were possible by the early 1990s.                           Gorbachev’s regime by 1991, as is pointed out by
                                                                      Jeffrey Sachs in The End of Poverty ((London: Penguin
          Though the economy had better growth rates                  Books, 2005), pp. 131–34).
     throughout the 1980s, specially in the latter half,         77.  C. Rangarajan, Indian Economy, p. 274.
     yet it was at the cost of bitter fiscal imbalances.         78.  Bimal Jalan in Bimal Jalan (ed.), 1992, pp. 190–191,
     By the end of the Plan, India had a highly                       op.cit.
                                                                 79.    his is the official version for the delay u lications
       75.   Planning Commission, Seventh Five Year Plan              Division, India 2007 (New Delhi: Government of India,
             (1980–85) (New Delhi: Government of India, 1980).        2007), p. 680.