Planning The Next Necessary Stage

Planning: The Next Necessary Stage Deb Kumar Bose IN a country like India, with its vast territory, centralised planning has its limitations. A central authority can plan for industries whose technological co-efficients are given and whose products are valued for their national significance. Usually, these are large- scale units. They often depend for their inputs on raw materials transported from distant regions; their products are again distributed over different parts of the country. At the current stage of development in. the country, the large industries can achieve economies of scale only when they can cater to markets spread over large areas in the country, as the size of the markets in the regions neighbouring the industries is not big enough to absorb their products. Planning of investments in such industries has to be undertaken keeping the total economy in view. Concurrent with industrial planning, the central authority has to plan for transport and communication systems to provide the necessary support to the industries.