Process of planning in India takes place in three steps-formulating the plan, its implementation and the evaluation. Over the years and due to the political pressures two new aspects have been added to the process, namely decentralization and popular participation. 1) Plan Formulation
The process of plan formulation takes place in a series of steps. The first step in the process of formulating the plan is for the Commission to prepare, on a rough basis, certain schemes and projects in consultation with the union ministries and state governments in the background the Perspective Plan; to determine some kind of priority; to take stock of the available resources; and to distribute these resources among the different agencies on an approximate basis. These estimates and projections are the placed before the National Development Council (NDC) and the schemes are modifies in the light of discussions. These are then sent to the various union ministries and state governments in the form of preliminary instructions.
Then begins the second stage where each union ministry and state government preparing its own plan. The machinery for planning is fairly well developed at the state level. After the states and the union ministries have submitted their plans to the commission, there begins the process of dovetailing the various schemes and programmes into an integrated plan. In this task the Commission consults representatives of different groups in the Indian Parliament. At the end of these exercises the draft plan is published and thrown open for discussion. The universities, the press, political parties, chambers of commerce and industry, trade organization and other groups and individuals are free to give their comments on the draft.
The next stage is the period of prolonged detailed discussion between the commission and the representatives of different state governments and the central government as a result of which the agreements as to