In this post, you must understand that with the base developed in the first two Plans, the Third Plan called for the maximum rate of ill vestment to
(a) reinforce industry, power and transport, and
(b) quicken the process of industrial and technological change.
The complete financial outlay in organised industries and mining during the Third Plan era was Rs. 3,000 crores, out of which the outlay in the public sector was nearly Rs. 1,700 crore and that in the private sector Rs. 1,300 crores.
Notes: The key role in industrial development programme is for the public sector.
The target of industrial development programme was to make the economy self-sustaining in producers’ goods industries like steel, machine building, etc., so that the quantum of external assistance required could be curtailed to a very low level. A total target of 7 per cent rise in industrial production was envisioned in the Plan.
Apart from the year 1965-66, industrial output enhanced steadily at the rate of 7.6 per cent annually. The accomplishment was lower than the average of 14 per cent per annum observed in the plan. Although the rise in the output of producer and basic industries was greater than the real growth in the general index of production, yet it was much lesser than the target set out in the Third Plan.
In spite of the overall under-achievement of targets the Third Plan mirrored the first stage of a decade or more of intensive development resulting in a self-reliant and self-generating economy. Engineering industries such as automobiles, diesel engines, cotton textile machinery, electric transformers and machine tools, advanced as per set-targets as did industries like heavy chemicals, petroleum products, cement, etc. Mining and extractive industries also depicted considerable progress. It was during this era that a fairly sound base for future industrial growth was laid through the conclusion of projects of the HEC for manufacture of machinery and equipment for steel plants, the MAMC for the production of mining equipment as well as Bharat Heavy Electricals for power generation and transmission equipment.
