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Saturday, February 21, 2026
TopicFive-Year Plans

Topic: Five-Year Plans

Socialist planners aggravated unemployment problem

Planning Commission couldn't tackle unemployment because new job opportunities in large-scale industries producing consumer goods were not created, wrote GN Lawande in 1963.

Moksha, not motor cars—BR Shenoy’s idea of a truly Indian welfare state

In a 1957 lecture, free-market economist BR Shenoy warned that India's welfare state must stay rooted in Dharma, not drift toward consumerist excess.

35 yrs of Mahalanobis model vs 35 yrs of Manmohan Singh. Two key moments of Indian economy

In 1991, as in 2025, the report cards of these two economic trajectories remain underwhelming. But as economists see it, politics got in the way each time. 

Why did India not fulfil its economic potential? New book outlines ‘economics of non-performance’

In 'The India Story', former RBI governor Bimal Jalan writes that much remains to be done about our economy since the boost of the 1990s.

All about the First Five-Year Plan that was presented by Nehru nearly 70 years ago today

The First Five-Year Plan was presented before the Parliament on 9 July 1951. The target GDP growth of the plan was 2.1%, but the country recorded a growth of 3.6% that year.

Why Ruskin Bond never wrote about Indian politicians

In this excerpt from his book 'Beauty of All My Days', Bond recalls memories of him having seen and heard Nehru as well as his conversations with Morarji Desai, Acharya Kripalani. 

On Camera

Youth Congress, your foolish protest helped the Modi govt climb out of the AI summit hole

In tactical terms, the shirtless protest was worse than a self-goal. Suddenly, the fiascos of the AI Summit were forgotten, and the Youth Congress’s disruption became the issue.

In the West, there’s anxiety. In India, optimism—Rishi Sunak says India poised to be leader in AI

On Wednesday, the former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was speaking in New Delhi at a Carnegie & Observer Research Foundation event on AI.

MoD, IAF agree on some exemptions to HAL for Tejas Mk1A, but no compromise on ‘must-have’ capabilities

IAF is fine with accepting the aircraft with 'must-haves', even if some other steps remain pending, which may take at least another year, it is learnt.

No country is ever fully sovereign. Cold War era taught India its real meaning

India’s fraught neighbourhood places multiple constraints on its strategic choices. It leaves no time to take a deep breath, lean back and reset.