Industries in the Second Plan (1956-61)

You must understand that the Second Five-Year Plan programme for industrialisation imagined a big expansion of the public sector. A base of heavy industry was sought to be developed. The real investment in the public sector on organised industry was Rs. 870 crore. Private sector investment was Rs. 675 crore during the Second Plan period-more than envisaged in the Plan. Likewise, investment in village and small industries was Rs. 265 crore (in both public and private sectors). Taken jointly, total investment in industries was Rs. 1,810 crore, that is, 27 per cent of the total investment during the Second Plan.




It is important to note that the industrial pattern sought to be created during the Second Plan was conceived with relation to the following priorities:

1. enhanced production of iron and steel and of heavy engineering and machine building industries;

2. expansion of capacity with relation to other development commodities and producer goods like chemical pulp, aluminium, cement, dyestuffs and phosphatic fertilisers, and of essential drugs;

3. modernisation and re-equipment of vital national industries which have already come into existence like jute and cotton textiles and sugar;

4. fuller utilisation of prevailing installed capacity in industries where there are gaps between capacity and production; and

5. expansion of capacity of consumer goods bearing in mind the needs of common production programmes as well as the productions targets for the decentralised sector of industry.

During the Second Plan, a main task in industry was the construction of three steel plants in the public sector: Bhilai Steel Plant in Madhya Pradesh, Rourkela Steel Plant in Orissa and Durgapur Steel Plant in West Bengal. The other programmes of industrial development involved the manufacture of electrical equipment, expansion of Hindustan Machine Tools, expansion of Sindri Fertiliser factory and the set-up of a fertilizer plant at Nangal, additional expansion of Hindustan Shipyard and Chittaranjan Locomotive factory. The Second Plan observed a main diversification of the industrial spectrum. It reinforced further the programmes of development with relation to oil exploration and coal and made a starting with the development of atomic energy.

Majority of the investments in the Second Plan were in heavy and basic industries. There was also quick expansion of machine-building industries for use in agriculture and transport and for these industries as paper, chemicals, cement, textile, jute, tea, sugar, flour and oil mills, mining, etc. Good progress was also recorded in modernisation and re-equipment of vital industries such as jute, cotton textiles and sugar. Quite a number of new industrial items were also generated in large quantity.

Example: Tractors, industrial boilers, milling machines, motor cycles, scooters.

In the area of village and small industries, substantial progress was recorded. Nearly 60 industrial estates consisting of 1,000 small factories were set up. The period also observed the rise of a vigorous class of small entrepreneurs. In numerous items such as machine tools, bicycles, sewing machines, electric motors, fans, hand tools, etc. production enhanced from 25 to 50 per cent during the five-year period. Khadi, handloom and power loom cloth production enhanced from 1,610 million metres to 2,150 million metres.

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