The Second Five-Year Plan of India was based on the:

The Second Five-Year Plan (1956-1961) was based on a model of economic growth developed by Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, a statistician and the founder of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata (1931). Mahalanobis was a member of the Planning Commission. He is called the "Father of Indian Statistics", and his birthday, 29 June, is observed as National Statistics Day.

The Mahalanobis model stressed rapid industrialisation, with special emphasis on heavy and basic industries, also called capital goods industries, such as steel, machinery and heavy engineering. The idea was that investing in industries that make machines would build up the country's capacity to produce more goods in the future and lead to faster long-term growth. The public sector was to play the leading role.

Achievements and features of the Second Plan:

• Three large public sector integrated steel plants were set up with foreign collaboration: Bhilai (with Soviet help), Rourkela (with West German help) and Durgapur (with British help).
• Hydroelectric projects, coal production and railway lines were expanded.
• The Atomic Energy Commission (1948) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research had already been set up, and nuclear research expanded.
• The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 provided the policy framework for the plan.

The Plan targeted a growth rate of 4.5% and achieved about 4.27%. However, it faced problems such as a shortage of foreign exchange and inflation, partly because agriculture received less attention.

The First Five-Year Plan (1951-1956), by contrast, focused on agriculture, irrigation and power, and was based on the Harrod-Domar model, which links growth to savings and investment. It was drafted under K.N. Raj and achieved a growth rate of about 3.6%, above its target of 2.1%.

The New Economic Policy of 1991, introduced by P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, is sometimes called the "Rao-Manmohan model" of development.

Why not the other options?

• ✗The Harrod-Domar model was the basis of the First Plan.
• ✗The Gandhian model emphasises village industries and decentralisation.
• ✗The Rao-Manmohan model refers to the 1991 reforms.