Notes on Approach to the Fourth Plan Indicators of Growth

Abstract

A hyndred and fifty years of British rule gave India a fair amount of law and order and some taste of modernisation as with the railways. But British rule did not contribute greatly to India’s economic development. India’s per capita income was more or less stagnant in the twentieth century till 1939, in spite of the fact that the rate of growth of population was not high. This lack of development was mainly due to the policy of laissez faire followed by the British authorities. They believed that market forces should be allowed to operate without interference from Government, and that this free play would bring about development most appropriate to the resource endowment of each country.