URBAN GOVERNANCE

INDIA’S 9TH FIVE YEAR PLAN(1997-2002)

Report submitted by

Sneha Manai

Gaury Padmachandran

Faculty of Architecture
Manipal University

Manipal
CONTENTS

8.1 introduction

8.2 Issues in 1997

8.3 Objectives

8.4 Outlay

8.5 Assessment

8.6 Reference
8.1 INTRODUCTION

The Eighth plan period ended in 1997. Implementation of the Ninth plan was
to begin from the same year.But a series of political crises in the country
delayed the formulation and approval of the plan by two years. The NDC
finally approved the plan in February 1999, envisaging a GDP growth rate of
6.5 percent per annum. Though delayed by two years in approval, the plan
was to run its period through to 2002.The ninth plan aimed at growth with
social justice and equity.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India during the Ninth Five-Year
Plan. The Ninth Five-Year Plan tried primarily to use the latent and unexplored
economic potential of the country to promote economic and social growth.
It offered strong support to the social spheres of the country in an effort to
achieve the complete elimination of poverty.

The satisfactory implementation of the Eighth Five-Year Plan also ensured the
states' ability to proceed on the path of faster development. The Ninth Five-
Year Plan also saw joint efforts from the public and the private sectors in
ensuring economic development of the country. In addition, the Ninth Five-
Year Plan saw contributions towards development from the general public as
well as governmental agencies in both the rural and urban areas of the
country.

The main feature of the Ninth Five Year Plan India is that at its onset our nation
crossed the fifty years of independence and this called for a whole new set
of development measures. There was a fresh need felt for increasing the
social and economic developmental measures. The government felt that the
full economic potentiality of the country, yet to be explored, should be
utilized for an overall growth in the next five years. As a result in the Ninth Five
Year Plan India, the emphasis was on human development, increase in the
growth rate and adoption of a full scale employment scheme for all. For such
development one needs to promote the social sectors of the nation and to
give utmost importance to the eradication of poverty.
8.2 ISSUES IN 1997
• 30 March - Congress withdraws support from the United Front, accusing
Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda of poor leadership.

• 9 September - 49 senior Hindu politicians and religious figures are

charged with conspiracy and incitement to riot for their alleged role in
the sacking of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya in 1992.

• 28 November - Prime Minister I. K. Gujral resigns after the Congress party

withdrew support from his government.

• 4 December - The president orders mid-term elections

8.3 OBJECTIVES
• Priority to agriculture and rural development with a view to generating
adequate productive employment and eradication of poverty;

(ii) Accelerating the growth rate of the economy with stable prices;

(iii) Ensuring food and nutritional security for all, particularly the vulnerable
sections of the society;

(iv) Providing basic minimum services of safe drinking water, primary

healthcare facilities, universal primary education, shelter and connectivity to
all in a time-bound manner,

(v) Containing the growth of populations;

(vi) Ensuring environmental sustainability of the development process through

social mobilization and participation of people at all levels;

(vii) Empowerment of women and society’s dis-advantaged groups such as

the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes and
minorities as agents of Socio-economic change and development;

(viii) Promoting and developing people’s participatory institutions like

Panchayati Raj Institutions, Co-operatives and self-help groups.

(ix) Strengthening efforts to build self-reliance;

The SPECIAL FEATURE of the Ninth Plan was the priority set out by the PRIME
MINISTER in the list titled ‘Special Action Plan’ (SAP).

It concentrated on FIVE AREAS:

1. food and agriculture;

2. physical infrastructure;

3. health,

4. education and drinking water;

5. information technology and water resources.

8.4OUTLAY
The size of the plan was estimated to be Rs. 8, 59,000 crore at 1996-97 prices.

This included plans of the Centre, States and public sector undertakings.

The gross budgetary support to the plan from the Centre was fixed at Rs. 3,
74,000 crore.

Resources from public sector undertakings and states were estimated to be

Rs. 2, 90,000 crore and Rs. 1, 95,000 crore respectively.

8.5ASSESSMENT
The rate of growth of GDP during the ninth plan dropped to 5.3 percent from
6.7 percent during the Eighth plan.

This was against the target of 6.5 percent.

The rate of growth declined particularly in the agriculture and manufacturing

sectors, whereas in the services sector there was a marginal increase in the
growth rate.

In the agriculture three of the five years of the Ninth Plan witnessed poor
performance due to weather-related shocks.
Table 1: Growth of Indian Economy during Eighth and Ninth Plans:

(per cent Per annum)

Eighth Plan Ninth Plan

Agriculture 4.69 2.06

Manufacturing 7.58 4.51

Services 7.54 7.78

Total 6.68 5.35

The Asian crisis in 1997 and slowdown in the world economy, coupled with
poor performance of agriculture during 1997-2000, led to a reduced demand
for industrial goods and consequent reduction in the growth rate in the
industrial sector.

Some other development during the ninth plan, such as cyclone in Orissa,
earthquake in Gujarat, KARGIL WAR may – july 1999 also resulted in diversion
of resources from investment and consequent decline in the growth rates.

Exports increased by 5.6 percent as against the target of 11.8 per cent. On
the other hand, imports increased by 4.1 percent as against the target of 10.8
percent. The trade deficit for the plan as a whole was US $ 74 billion
Table 2: Sectorial Structure of Indian Economy during Ninth Plan:

During the Ninth Plan, the rate of growth in better off states (i.e., states with
higher per capita GDP), e.g., Gujarat, Maharashtra, etc., was generally
higher than that in the states with lower level of per capita income, such as
Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh.

In EDUCATION, the progress in terms of access was impressive. During the first
three years of the Ninth plan, over 43,000 new schools were opened and
1,30,000 new teachers recruited at the primary level, while more than 21,000
new schools and 1,02,000 teachers were added in the upper primary schools.

In the field of higher and technical education, the Ninth plan period saw the
emergence of separate universities of Science and Technology and Health
Sciences autonomous colleges with the freedom to design curricula, evolve
new methods of teaching and research, frame admission rules and conduct
examination.

The ninth plan made two significant changes in the conceptual strategy of
planning for women. Firstly, for empowerment of women, the plan made
efforts to create an enabling environment where women could freely
exercise

their rights, Secondly, the plan attempted ‘convergence of existing services’

available in both women-specific and women-related sectors.

To this effect, it directed both the centre and the states to adopt a special
strategy of women’s component plan (WCP) through which not less than 30
percent of funds/benefits flow to women from all the general development
sectors.

In art and culture, SEVEN ZONAL CULTURAL CENTRES (ZCCS) were set up in
various regions to create cultural awareness among people and to identify,
nurture and promote the vanishing folk art traditions in the rural and semi-
urban areas. All the ZCCs were assigned two more activities—The Republic
Day folk Dance festival and craft fair and documentation of vanishing folk art
forms.

Against a target of Rs. 9,611 crore of credit, the achievement during the last
three years of the plan was only Rs. 3,235 crore i.e., 33.66 percent of the
target. Under Jawahar Rojgar Yojna (JRY), revamped as Jawahar Gram
Samridhi Yojna (JGSY) on April 1, 1999, 73,764.83 lakhs man days of
employment were generated till 1998-99.

Under the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS). 4, 717,74 lakhs man days of
employment were generated in the first year of the Ninth Plan. Employment
generation went down in subsequent years.

During the Ninth Plan, over 200 research and development (R&D) projects
were initiated at a number of institutions. Several major research facilities
centres of excellence and programmes were established during the plan.
The swarnjayanthi fellow ships and the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojna
were also launched to encourage young scientists.
8.6 REFERENCE
• www.planningcommission.nic.in

• www.yourarticlelibrary.com/planning/indias-ninth-five-year-plan

• Jalal Alamgir, India's Open-Economy Policy: Globalism, Rivalry,

Continuity (London and New York: Routledge 2008), Chapter 2.

• "National Development Council approves 12th Five Year Plan". Indian

Express. 2012-12-27. Retrieved 2013-07-10.