Micro Level Planning for Regional Development: Indian Experience

The planning process in the developing countries is fast changing in keeping with the emerging new needs, issues, goals and realities of development. Till the mid 1960s, countries were more pre-occupied with macro-economic growth opportunities and laid great emphasis on large scale projects and infrastructural developments. Planning was concentrated at the top and tended to be focussed more on strategies of development than on actual spatial potentialities and means of implementation. This inevitably left a wide gap between the plan and ground realities. As inroads into development were made, issues relating to the distribution of investments and the choice of production alternatives in relation to regional and local potentials have assumed great significance. Thus there has been increasing recognition in the developing countries of the need for and the desirability of encouraging micro level planning for regional development. The present study, being the first of its kind in focus as well as locus, is aimed as an exploratory analysis. Besides being descriptive and analytical, it adopts an instrumental perspective. In the process, it throws up issues and refers to themes that deserve further analysis and in depth examination, and from that angle, the present research effort has a substantial heuristic value. This book is useful to research scholars in Economics, Rural Development, Cooperation and other related disciplines and those who are interested in regional development planning.