INDIAN ECONOMY AFTER INDEPENDENCE | UPSC, SSC, IBPS, RRB, TNPSC And other states exams

INDIAN ECONOMY AFTER INDEPENDENCE

Indian Economy during the British

• Indian economy in the early days was a village economy. Agriculture was the primary occupation and nearly 70 percentage of the population engaged in Agriculture. 

• The community of the village produced the necessary requirements and rarely the products went beyond the local market. The relationship with neighboring village is very much limited.

• More over India had a well established industries in the nature of handicrafts. The chief among them is textile industry. Trade and commerce flourished only in urban centers.

• Bengal was famous for calicos, Benares for silk, Tamilnadu for Handlooms, Kashmir for shawls and Ludhiana for woolen products.

• When the British conquered India they disintegrated the village economy. The British rule coincided with the industrial revolution in England. This Industrial revolution exploited India to serve the economic interests of Great Britain. 

• India was considered as the repository of raw materials intended for supplying the industrial needs of England. All the expansions in the fields of transport, communication, irrigation, education etc were mainly aimed at accelerating the process of economic drain from India.

The main consequences of the British rule

The important consequences of British rule in India are as follows :

1.Decline of the rural economy.

2. Decline of Indian handicrafts.

3.Introduction of new land system.

The British rule, however, contributed to the emergence of India's natural resources in the development of the UK, but the British rule was the result of a unified India.

Indian Economy of Liberation

• Leaders and programmers were the main objective of the development of the Indian economy after the release of the country.

• Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to strengthen the rural economy. Therefore, priority was given to agriculture, irrigation and power generation projects. Nehru decided to implement a hybrid economy that would coordinate the public sector and private sector to achieve rapid economic growth.

• He suggested that the Five Year Plan is the best for rapid economic growth.

Five year plans in India

• Five-year plans are a concept derived from the former Soviet republic. In the Soviet Union there were seven years of practice.

• The Indian Planning Commission was constituted in 1950 to implement five years in India. The Prime Minister is the Chairman of the Planning Commission. Full-time Vice Chairperson has been appointed to coordinate the tasks of the Planning Commission has been renamed as NITIAayog.

1. Increasing the National Income.

2. Reducing the inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth.

3. Elimination of poverty.

4. Providing additional employment.

5. Removing the bottlenecks in agriculture production and in manufacturing sector.

11 five year plans have already been completed. Now, Twelfth Five year plan is in progress.

Eleventh five year plan (2007 - 2012)

The eleventh five year plan  commenced in April 2007. It covers a  period of five years i.e., 2007-2012. 

Objectives of Eleventh five year plan

1.Increasing the public investment in irrigation, rural electrification and rural roads.

2. To reduce the subsidies in power, dati P 4-1 B

3.Promoting agricultural research.

4.To ensure environmental protection.

5.Larger employment opportunities.

6. To develop rural infrastructure.

7. To abolish poverty.

8.To reduce the dropout rate in primary schools.

Now, let us discuss the agricultural and industrial development which are the key factors for our national Economy.

Agricultural Development and food production 

In India, agriculture is the backbone of the economy. Nearly 20% of the National Income of India (2011-2012) is derived from agriculture.

Green revolution 

Green revolution was introduced in  the year 1967. The Indian Council of  Agricultural Research (ICAR)  introduced this new strategy through  land refonns, promoting the use of High  Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds and  improved irrigation facilities, to  increase the agricultural production.

Land reforms 

The government initiated speedy  land reform measures like land ceiling  legislation, abolition of intermediaries  and tenancy legislation. In this regard  the Bhoodhan movement started by  Vinobabhave deserves a mention.

Through the Bhoodhan movement millions of acres of land were received from the landlords and distributed to the landless poor.

High yielding variety seeds programme

The green revolution largely means increasing production of food grains by using High Yielding Variety seeds especially of wheat and rice. The use of High Yielding Variety seeds requires regular supply of water, fertilizer, pesticides and financial resources. 

As a result of green revolution large number of states benefited by producing more crops. This enabled India to achieve self-sufficiency in food grain production. The credit of introducing the High Yielding Variety seeds goes to Indian Council of Agriculture Research and many agricultural universities in India particularly Ludhiana, Pantnagar (UP)

and Coimbatore.

Industries 

A number of public sector  industries were started. The important  public sector industries are Hindustan  machine tools, Hindustan Shipyard,  Sindhri Fertilizer factory, Integral  Coach Factory and newsprint mills.

Public sector units refer to industries run by government e.g. Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Bharath Heavy Electricals Limited, BSNL and Air India.

Private sector industries refer to industries run by private like Ashok Leyland, TVS group of companies, Godrej and Tl cycles.

High priority was given to heavy engineering and machine building industries, castings and forgings, fertilizer and petroleum products.