The Strategy of Indian Planning

Abstract

Any society which aims at economic progress must strive for an increase in the rate of saving and investment, a widespread diffusion of technical skills among its people, and a framework of leadership that permits a reasonable degree of coherence in its efforts. These and many other aspects of national endeavour which are a necessary and integral part of the process of development cannot nevertheless be dignified to the status of a ‘strategy’. For strategy implies essentially a deliberate choice — a choice of the point and timing and manner of attack on the problem at hand.

Prepared in March 1963, and published in a volume in honour of Professor P. C. Mahalanobis on the occasion of his 70th birthday, entitled: ‘Essays in Econometrics and Planning’ (Calcutta: Pergamon Press, for the Statistical Publishing Society, June. 1964).