Q40. In what year was India’s First Five-Year Plan introduced?
[WBCS Prelims 2015]
(A) 1947
(B) 1950
(C) 1951
(D) 1955
Answer: (C) 1951
Explanation: India’s First Five-Year Plan started in 1951 and continued through 1956. It prioritised agriculture, irrigation and food security. The Planning Commission, established the previous year, was responsible for developing the plan’s national framework and proposals.
Q39. Which Five-Year Plan experienced the wars of 1962 and 1965?
[WBCS Prelims 2015]
(A) Second Plan
(B) Third Plan
(C) Fourth Plan
(D) Fifth Plan
Answer: (B) Third Plan
Explanation: The Third Plan was implemented between 1961 and 1966, encompassing India’s 1962 conflict with China and the 1965 war with Pakistan. Together with severe drought, these disruptions derailed anticipated economic growth and undermined the plan’s self-reliance aims.
Q38. Under which Five-Year Plan did India promote heavy industrialisation through public-sector expansion?
[WBCS Prelims 2015]
(A) First Plan
(B) Second Plan
(C) Third Plan
(D) Fourth Plan
Answer: (B) Second Plan
Explanation: The Second Plan placed heavy and capital-goods industries at the centre of India’s development programme during 1956–61. Steel, engineering and large public enterprises received emphasis, consistent with P. C. Mahalanobis’s long-term industrialisation strategy.
Q37. Which thinker proposed the Gandhian Plan in 1944?
[UPPSC PCS Re-exam 2015]
(A) N. R. Sarkar
(B) Kasturbhai Lalbhai
(C) Jayaprakash Narayan
(D) Shriman Narayan Agarwal
Answer: (D) Shriman Narayan Agarwal
Explanation: Shriman Narayan Agarwal articulated the Gandhian Plan in 1944 as an alternative development vision centred on villages, cottage industries and decentralised economic structures. The proposal preceded the establishment of India’s national Planning Commission in 1950.
Q36. Which of these was NOT an antipoverty programme?
[Chhattisgarh PCS Prelims 2014]
(A) RLEGP
(B) IRDP
(C) NREP
(D) MRTP
Answer: (D) MRTP
Explanation: RLEGP, IRDP and NREP were rural development and poverty-reduction interventions. MRTP referred to regulation of monopolies and restrictive trade practices rather than a programme guaranteeing jobs or income to poor households. Thus MRTP is the exception.
Q35. TRYSEM chiefly concerned development in which area?
[UPPSC PCS Prelims 2014]
(A) Rural development
(B) Industrial development
(C) Urban development
(D) Defence preparedness
Answer: (A) Rural development
Explanation: Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM) was designed to provide skills and self-employment opportunities to rural youth. It complemented anti-poverty programmes in villages and was not a defence or urban infrastructure initiative.
Q34. Under which agency was the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund established?
[UPPSC PCS Prelims 2014]
(A) Reserve Bank of India
(B) NABARD
(C) Ministry of Agriculture
(D) Ministry of Rural Development
Answer: (B) NABARD
Explanation: The Rural Infrastructure Development Fund is maintained through NABARD to support eligible rural infrastructure projects. It facilitates investments such as irrigation, roads and public infrastructure, distinct from the Reserve Bank’s monetary-policy remit or an individual ministry’s direct scheme.
Q33. During the Twelfth Plan, the estimated infrastructure investment requirement was closest to what amount?
[UPPSC PCS Prelims 2014]
(A) US$100 billion
(B) US$250 billion
(C) US$500 billion
(D) US$1,000 billion
Answer: (D) US$1,000 billion
Explanation: The Twelfth Five-Year Plan projected an infrastructure requirement of about US$1 trillion, reflecting the scale of investment needed in transport, electricity and related infrastructure. This was a prospective planning estimate for 2012–17, not a statement of realised spending.
Q32. Which are correct:
(1) National Development Council was an organ of the Planning Commission;
(2) economic and social planning appears in the Concurrent List;
(3) Panchayats can prepare economic development plans?
[UPSC CSE Prelims 2013]
(A) 1 only
(B) 2 and 3 only
(C) 1 and 3 only
(D) All three
Answer: (B) 2 and 3 only
Explanation: The National Development Council was not an organ of the Planning Commission. Economic and social planning falls in the Concurrent List, while constitutional provisions recognise local planning roles for Panchayats. Hence statements two and three are correct.
Q31. Who initiated the National Planning Committee in 1938?
[MPPSC Prelims 2013]
(A) Jawaharlal Nehru
(B) A. Dalal
(C) Subhas Chandra Bose
(D) Lal Bahadur Shastri
Answer: (C) Subhas Chandra Bose
Explanation: Subhas Chandra Bose, then Indian National Congress president, initiated the National Planning Committee in 1938. Jawaharlal Nehru chaired the committee. The distinction between the founder and chairperson is central to this question on planning’s pre-independence origins.
