A Study of Economic Plans for India

Abstract

On the initiative of the then President of the Indian National Congress, Sri Subhas Chandra Bose, a conference of the provincial Ministers of Industries and their advisers was held in Delhi on the 2nd and 3rd of October, 1938. This conference came to the conclusion that the problems of poverty and of unemployment, of national defense or of economic regeneration in general, could not be solved except through large-scale industrialization. This conference, for the first time in the history of Indian Economics, recognized the need of a comprehensive scheme of national planning, and in one of its resolutions specifically stated that the scheme should provide for the integrated development of heavy and key industries, medium-scale industries and cottage industries, keeping in view, our national requirements and resources, as also the peculiar circumstances prevailing in the country.