SEVENTH PLAN-Moonshine on Employment

SEVENTH PLAN Moonshine on Employment Satish Jha THINGS could have looked up for India's poor. A new political leadership promising to offer a 'government that works better' and the time to write a new Five-Year Plan offered an opportunity to make a fresh move to help the poor. Morale of the planners seemed high. Just one word from the Prime Minister and they could turn a Five-Year Plan into a long-run fifteen-year plan in a matter of weeks, But on the vital issues that are supposed to concern a planned economy the Seventh Plan document is no less ambiguous than the half-a-dozen similar exercises preceding it. In fact, in its strategy as in its stated intent the Plan is little short of a scandal.