The model of planned economy was adopted in India to address the regional imbalances left behind by colonial rule. Comment. (Answer in 250 words)

At independence, colonial extraction had left India poor, industrially weak and regionally uneven; planning sought coordinated transformation rather than reliance on fragmented markets.

The state directed scarce capital towards heavy industry, infrastructure, irrigation, scientific capacity and public goods. Five-Year Plans promoted import substitution, community development and investment in backward areas. Public-sector enterprises and dams were expected to create regional employment and technological capability, while land reforms and agricultural programmes addressed rural inequality.

Planning built a diversified industrial base, expanded higher education, food-grain production and transport, and supported Green Revolution infrastructure. It created capabilities that private capital initially could not finance.

The licence-permit regime encouraged inefficiency, rent seeking and weak competition. Benefits were uneven: irrigated and already better-connected regions gained more, while tribal and eastern areas remained disadvantaged. Employment growth and human-development outcomes lagged behind investment.

Planning was a necessary nation-building framework, but regional balance required decentralised participation, fiscal transfers, human capital, connectivity and later market reforms with social safeguards—not central allocation alone.

Five-Year Plans, public sector, import substitution, Green Revolution, regional disparity