Three Annual Plans

The period of the three consecutive Annual Plans was 1966–69. Though the Fourth Plan was ready for implementation in 1966, the weak financial situation as well as the low morale after the defeat by China, the government decided to go for an Anuual Plan for 1966–67. Due to the same reasons the government went for another two such plans in the forthcoming years. The broader objectives of these Annual Plans were inside the design of the Fourth Plan which would have been implemented for the period 1966–71 had the financial conditions not worsened by then.

Some economists as well as the opposition in the Parliament called this period as a discontinuity in the planning process, as the Plans were supposed to be for a period of five years. They named it a period of “Plan Holiday”, i.e., the planning was on a holiday.68