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Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu speakers. income, to set-up a society based on equality and
Boundaries were also redrawn in North India to justice and absence of exploitation and to reduce
create several states. In 1960, Bombay was inequalities of income and wealth.
divided into two bilingual states of Marathi and
The Planning Commission has been working
Gujarati speakers. Punjab too was divided in 1966 through its Five Year Plans, developed, executed
into Punjab (for Punjabi speakers who were
and monitored by the Planning Commission.
mostly Sikhs) and Haryana (for those who spoke
Beginning with 1951, India has completed twelve
Hindi or versions of Haryanvi).
Five-Year Plans on March 31, 2017.
CENTRE-STATE RELATIONS
Info Bits
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Arguments were raised for and against a strong
centre. Some favoured a strong centre for proper After 1965, the Indian government adopted the
planning and execution in a large country like policy of introducing high yielding varieties of
India. Others argued for greater autonomy in the seeds, increased use of fertilisers, and large-scale
provinces. The Constitution settled the issue after irrigation. The policy led to an unprecedented
a great deal of deliberation by providing three lists increase in agricultural production making India
of subjects known as—a Union List with subjects self-sufficient in foodgrains. This remarkable
such as taxes, defence, and foreign affairs which change was termed as Green Revolution.
would be the responsibility of only the centre; a Now, the Planning Commission is replaced by
State List of subjects, such as health and education
Niti Ayog , a new body that gives policy direction.
which would be looked after by the state and a
Its founding principal is cooperative federalism .
Concurrent List which would deal with subjects Most important difference is that Niti Ayog has no
like forests and agriculture. This would be the
power to grant funds or make decisions on behalf
joint responsibility of the central and state of states. It is only an advisory body.
governments.
It was decided after a lot of debates and INDIA’S FOREIGN POLICY
discussions that Hindi would be the ‘official
India’s foreign policies were formulated by our
language of India and English would be used in national leaders even since India’s independence.
the courts, the services and in communicating The principles of India’s foreign policies are :
between one state and another.
1. Fostering cordial relations with other
PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENT countries.
One of the major areas that needed attention was 2. Solving conflicts by peaceful means.
economic growth. In 1950, the government set-up 3. Sovereignty and equality of all nations.
the Planning Commission to formulate suitable
4. Independence of thought and action as per the
policies for economic growth. Jawaharlal Nehru
was its ex-officio chairman. The Planning principles of Non-alligned Movement or NAM.
Commission defined the country’s economic goals 5. Equality in conducting international relations.
and framed policies for the achievement of such Under the guidance of Jawaharlal Nehru, India
goals it took stock of the country’s resources. It also championed the cause of world peace and attained
regulated the utilisation and distribution of the
an important place in international affairs. India
available resources so as to tackle problems such as was one of the founding members of several
poverty, unemployment, price rise, regional international organisations, most notably the
imbalances, and so on. The main objectives of the
United National the Non-Aligned Movement , the
Planning Commission were to achieve full Asian Development Bank and the G20 industrial
employment higher level of national and per capita
nations . India has also played an important and
Contemporary Social Science-8
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