INTRODUCTION:

The Indian economy, one of the fastest-growing economy in the world, has
undergone significant evolution since independence. The theoretical efforts for
economic development in Indian economy had already began before
independence. The non implementation of “the Bombay plan (1944)” and
“people’s plan (1945)” led to the importance of planned planning for the
growth and development of Indian economy. In 1946, the interim government
was formed in India. This government established a high-level advisory
planning board in order to study the problems of planning and developments
in the country. The board gave recommendations to establish a stable planning
commission at the central level which could continuously work for the planning
and development of the country. With this objective the government of India
Established the Planning Commission under the Chairmanship Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru on 15 March 1950. The Planning Commission played a crucial
role in the economic development and growth of the country by presenting the
draft outline of the first five-year plan In July 1951, which lasted the period
1951 to 1956. From 1951 to 2017, the Government of India implemented 12
five-year plans in India in total. These plans are series of strategic plans with an
effort to promote economic growth, social welfare, poverty alleviation, regional
balance, industrialization and self-reliance in a systematic and planned manner.
Thus, the goal was to handle these diverse areas of national development in a
systematic manner across five-year periods.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTING SECTORS OF INDIAN ECONOMY TOWARDS GDP
GROWTH:
India is developing into an open-market economy, yet traces of its past autarkic
policies remain. Economic liberalization measures, including industrial
deregulation, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and reduced controls on
foreign trade and investment began in the early 1990s and served to accelerate
the country's growth which averaged nearly 7% per year from 1997 to 2017.
This economy is unique and composed of three major sectors which are 1.
Primary, 2. Secondary and 3. Tertiary Sectors.
1. primary or agricultural sector:
When the goods are produced by exploiting natural resources, it comes under
the primary sector. It involves transforming natural resources into primary
products. It forms the base for all other products that we eventually make. The
other examples in this sector include agriculture, dairy, fishing and forestry. The
primary sector in India include agriculture as it accounts for the largest
proportion in this sector. As agriculture is dependent on the availability of
natural resources in order to manufacture the goods and also to execute
various processes, is commonly known as primary Sector. The major problems
of this sector are underemployment, disguised employment and low
productivity. At the time of India’s independence this sector had biggest share
in the GDP of India. But its contribution to India’s GDP has been decreasing
over past few decades, from 50-60% in the early years after independence to
15% in 2022-23 (source: the economic times, 19 dec, 2023).
2.Secondary Sector or Industrial Sector
The secondary sector encompasses activities in which natural products are
changed into other forms or finished goods through manufacturing and are
consequently used for consumption. The product has to be made and therefore
some process of manufacturing is essential. The manufacturing could be done
in a factory, workshop or at home. For example, using cotton fibre to spin yarn
and weave cloth. The industrial sector’s contribution to India’s GDP was around
15% at the time of independence but it accounts for 31% of the total in 2022-
23 (source: economic survey, 2022-23).
3) Tertiary Sector or Service Sector
The tertiary sector is the part of the economy that provides services to
consumers and businesses. The economic activities included in the tertiary
sector help in the development of the primary and secondary sectors. These
activities do not produce any good but they are an aid or a support for the
production process. This sector includes Transport, Storage, Communication,
Banking, Insurance, Trade, Hospitality, Tourism, Entertainment, Management
Consultancy etc. This sector is the fastest growing sector of Indian Economy. It
contributes maximum to the GDP of the country. This sector has over 50%
contribution to India’s GDP, and it had witnessed a growth of 9.1% in 2022-23.
Currently this sector is the backbone of Indian economy.
CONTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURAL, INDUSTRIAL AND SERVICE SECTOR
TOWARDS INDIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
Indian economy has been on the move forward since 1951. Its achievements in
the course of the last six decades have been reasonably impressive. Different
sectors of the Indian economy have given moderate to good performance.
Overall economic development of the country is indicated by increase in
national income---- gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is a key indicator of
country’s economic health and size. It is the total value of all goods and
services produced within a country’s borders over a specified period. In 2023-
24, India’s economy grew at a rapid rate of 8.2% and India is considered as one
of the fastest growing economies in the world. Different sectors of the
economy---agriculture and allied sector (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, mining),
industrial sector and service sector—have experienced different rates of
growth since 1951. Therefore, contribution made by different sectors of the
economy towards GDP growth has differed during different phases of economic
development.
To show and analyse the contribution of different sectors towards GDP growth
and economic development during the twelve five-year plans, different time
frame of the planning periods is selected. Here we have taken a long-term
phase of India’s economic development, the growth rate of overall GDP and
growth rates of agriculture, industries and service sector where the total time
frame is divided into three time periods, viz. 1951-1972, 1972-1993 and 1993-
2014. The sector wise growth rates, share to total GDP and GDP growth rate
over plan period are presented in the following table,

Table-1: sectoral growth rates and share to total GDP

year GDP
growth
Sectoral growth rate share to total GDP rate
Agriculture industry service Agriculture industry service
and allied and allied
sector sector
1951- 45.9
1972 2.6 5.7 4.4 20.8 31.4 3.7
1972-
1993 2.9 4.9 5.6 34.2 25.8 38.9 4.3
1993-
2014 3.2 6.7 8.4 20.2 27.6 52.1 6.8
Data source: planning commission, 2014
FINDINGS:
1. from the above table it is seen that there is always a positive growth in
overall GDP as compared to its previous phase of time. There is more than 80%
rise in average GDP growth during 1993-94 to 2013-14 as compared to the
time period of 1951-52 to 1971-72.
2. Despite low growth rate, agricultural sector has made a positive contribution
to growth of GDP, in view of this being the largest sector in India, employing
47% of the workforce in 2013-14. But it is seen that the share of agricultural
sector to total GDP declined over time as table-1 reveals that the share
reduced to 20.2 % during 1993-94 to 2013-14 while it was 45.9% between
1951-52 and 1971-72.
3. from table-1 it is noted that growth rates of industrial and service sectors
have generally been higher than the GDP growth rate, indicating that these
two sectors have made significant contribution to GDP growth. It is also seen
that between 1951-52 and 1971-72, the industrial sector registered a higher
growth rate than the service sector. But during the time phases of 1972-73 to
1992-93 and 1993-94 to 2013-14 the growth rate of service sector is higher
than the industrial sector.
4. over time the share of both industrial and service sectors to total GDP
growth has been increased and the service sector accounts the highest share
as compared to industrial and agricultural sectors. Besides the share of
agriculture in GDP declined gradually and reached an average level of 20.2%
between 1993-94 and 2013-14.
SECTORAL GROWTH AND OVERALL GDP GROWTH RATES IN LAST TWO
DECADES OF PLAN PERIOD:
Over the past decade, growth in India increased after a number of decades in
which growth was lower than typical of an economy at its stage of
development. If we concentrate on the last two decades of plan period, the
period during which Indian economy has been growing very rapidly, the
contribution of different sectors towards GDP growth rate is illustrated through
table-2.
TABLE-2: sectoral growth rates in last two decades of plan period
sector IX plan X Plan XI Plan XII plan
(target)
Agriculture 2.1 2.3 3.0 4.0
and allied
sector
industry 4.5 9.4 7.9 10.0
service 7.8 9.3 10.1 8.0
GDP 5.4 7.8 8.2 8.0
Data Source: pratiyogita darpan, 2016