---
title: "Five Year Plans: India's Planning Era (1951-2017)"
description: "Five Year Plans are India's centralized economic blueprints that set production targets and priorities, guiding policy for over six decades."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/five-year-plans"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- Five Year Plans are centralised quinquennial economic blueprints that set national production targets, resource allocations, and investment priorities for a defined period.
- How many Five Year Plans did India implement, and why did the sequence stop?
- What is the difference between the Planning Commission and the Finance Commission?
- Who designed the strategy of the Second Five Year Plan?
- What body approved the Five Year Plans?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

Five Year Plans are centralised quinquennial economic blueprints that set national production targets, resource allocations, and investment priorities for a defined period.

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## Timeline

1. 15 March 1950

   The institutional vehicle, the Planning Commission, was established not by statute but by a Cabinet resolution of , with the Prime Minister as ex-officio cha…

2. 27 December 2012

   The Eleventh Plan (2007-12) targeted "faster and more inclusive growth," while the Twelfth Plan, approved by the NDC on under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh…

3. 1 January 2015

   On the Narendra Modi government replaced the Planning Commission with NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), and the Twelfth Plan was the…

4. 31 March 2017

   On 1 January 2015 the Narendra Modi government replaced the Planning Commission with NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), and the Twelft…

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Example

On 27 December 2012, the National Development Council chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved India's Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17), which proved to be the country's last before the Planning Commission was replaced by NITI Aayog in 2015.

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