Economic planning in India
Economic planning in India can easily be read through dividing it into 3 parts:
1. Economic Planning before  independence.
2. Economic planning after independence.
3. Economic planning after 1991.

Economic planning in India before independence:
Economic study by Dadabhai Naraoji:
• The first authentic economic study of British India was published by Dadabhai Naraoji in his  book ‘Poverty and the Unbritish Rule in India’.
• Dadabhai Naoroji's work focused on the drain of wealth from India into England through  colonial rule.
• One of the  reasons that the Drain theory is attributed to Naoroji is his decision to estimate  the net national profit of India, and by extension, the effect that colonization has on the  country.
• In Naoroji's book 'Poverty' he estimated a 200 – 300 million pounds loss  of revenue to Britain  that is not returned.
• Through his work with economics, Naoroji sought to prove that Britain was draining money  out of India.

Naoroji described 6 factors which resulted in the external drain:
• Firstly, India is governed by a foreign  government.
• Secondly, India does not attract immigrants which bring labour and capital for economic  growth.
• Thirdly, India pays for Britain's civil administrations and occupational army.
• Fourthly, India bears the burden of empire building in and out  of its borders.
• Fifthly, opening the country to free trade was actually a way to exploit India by offering  highly paid jobs to foreign personnel.
• Lastly, the principal income- earners would buy outside of India or leave with the money as  they were mostly foreign personnel.

Royal commission on Indian Expenditure in 1896:
Naoroji's work on the drain theory was the main reason behind the creation of the Royal  commission on Indian Expenditure in 1896 in which he was also a member. This commission  reviewed financial burdens on India and in some cases came to the conclusion that those burdens  were misplaced.

Emergence of the idea of planned economy in India:
• First of all the idea of planned economy was crystallized in 1930s when our national leaders  came under the influence of socialist philosophy. India’s Five year plans were very much  impressed by the rapid strides achieved by the USSR through five years plans.
• In 1934,  Sir M. Visvesvaraya had published a book titled  “Planned Economy for  India” , in  which he presented a constructive draft of the development of India in next ten years. His  core idea was to lay out a plan to shift labor from agriculture to industries and double up  National income in ten years. This was the first concrete scholarly work towards planning.
• The economic perspective of India’s freedom movement  was formulated du ring the thirties  between the 1931 Karachi session of Indian National Congress, 1936 Faizpur session of India  National Congress.
• National Planning Committee:  The first attempt to develop a national plan for India came up  in 1938. In that year, Congress President Subhash Chandra Bose had set up a National  Planning Committee with Jawaharlal Nehru as its president. However the reports of the  committee could not be prepared and only for the first time in 1948 -49 some papers came  out.

VARIOUS PLANS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA:
Bombay Plan:
In 1944 Eight Industrialists of Bombay viz. Mr. JRD Tata, GD Birla, Purshottamdas Thakurdas, Lala  Shriram, Kasturbhai Lalbhai, AD Shroff , Ardeshir Dalal, & John Mathai working together  prepared “A  Brief Memorandum Outlining a Plan of Economic Development for India”. This is known as  “Bombay
Plan ”. This plan envisaged doubling the per capita income in 15 years and tripling the national  income during this period. Nehru did not officially accept the plan, yet many of the ideas of the plan  were inculcated in other plans which came later.

People’s Plan  
People’s plan was drafted by MN Roy. This plan was for ten years period and gave greatest priority  to Agriculture. Nationalization of all agriculture and production was the main feature of this plan.  This plan was based on Marxist socialism and drafted by M N Roy on behalf of the Indian federation  of Lahore.

Gandhian Plan
This plan was drafted by Sriman Nayaran, principal of Wardha Commercial College. It emphasized  the economic decentralization with primacy to rural development by developing the cottage  industries.  

Sarvodaya Plan
Sarvodaya Plan (1950) was drafted by Jaiprakash Narayan. This plan itself was inspired by Gandhian  Plan and Sarvodaya Idea of Vinoba Bhave. This plan emphasized on agriculture and small & cottage  industries. It also suggested the freedom from foreign technology and stressed upon land reforms  and decentralized participatory planning.

Economic Planning in India after  Independence:
Planning Commission-Its origin:
• Immediately after independence in 1947, the Economic Programme Committee (EPC) was  formed by All India Congress Committee with Nehru as its chairman.
• This committee was to make a plan to balance private and public partnership and urban and  rural economies. In 1948, this committee recommended forming of a planning com mission.
• In March 1950, the Planning Commission was set up by a Resolution of the Government of  India as an advisory and specialized institution.

Planning Commission –Structure:
• Planning Commission was an extra- constitutional body, charged with the responsibility of  making assessment of all resources of the country, augmenting deficient resources,  formulating plans for the most effective and balanced utilization of resources and  determining priorities.
• Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Chairman of the Planning Commission.
•Originally most of the members of the commission were themselves central ministers.

National Development Council (NDC):
• The Planning Commission as originally constituted was but an arm of government of India.
• The state governments had no participation in it or had no role to play in the planning  process.
• To remove these defects The National Development Council (NDC) was created in 1952.
• The National Development Council was to consist of the Prime Minister as its chairman, the  Chief Ministers of all the states and union territories and the members of the commission.
• The National Development Council was conceived as a super planning body. It acted as a  forum in which the Prime Minister. Union Ministers, the Chief Ministers of states and  members of the Planning Commission would interact at all stages of planning.
• Plans were formulated by the Planning Commission and approved the National Development  Council before they were presented to the Parliament and the state legislatures. In this way  plans formulated by the planning commission received a national character.