Economic Planning in India

Type: Centralised Planning; Essence: A single central authority frames a holistic, top-down plan for the entire nation.; Example: Soviet Gosplan; India's 1st–8th FYPs in their classical form.

Type: Decentralised Planning; Essence: Sub-national units (states, districts, panchayats) frame their own plans, aggregated upwards.; Example: 73rd & 74th Constitutional Amendments — village/district planning.

Type: Regional Planning; Essence: Plan defined by a geographic area covering several cities / a river basin. The USA was the first country to begin regional planning, in 1916.; Example: Damodar Valley, TVA model.

Type: National Planning; Essence: Plan covering the whole country, with the centre driving resource allocation. The USSR began the model with its first Five-Year Plan 1928–33.; Example: India's Five-Year Plans 1951 onwards.

Objective: Economic Growth; Core Idea: Sustainable rise in real GDP / per-capita income; the primary goal of all twelve plans.

Objective: Poverty Alleviation; Core Idea: Direct anti-poverty programmes — IRDP, NREP, RLEGP, SGSY, NREGA, NRLM, PM-JAY, PMAY etc.

Objective: Employment Generation; Core Idea: Reduce unemployment & under-employment — the Fifth Plan's "Garibi Hatao", MGNREGA 2005, PMEGP, Skill India.

Objective: Social Justice & Reducing Inequalities; Core Idea: Tackle inter-personal, inter-regional, inter-sectoral, gender and caste inequities.