The guiding principles of the Seventh Plan were to achieve growth with social justice and to improve productivity. The main objectives of the industrial sector under this plan were:

(1) To ensure adequate supply of wage goods and consumer articles of mass consumption at reasonable prices and acceptable quality;

(2) To maximise the utilisation of the existing facilities through restricting, improved productivity and up gradation of technology;

(3) To concentrate on development of indus­tries with large domestic market and export potential to emerge as world leaders in them;

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(4) To usher in ‘sunrise’ industries with high growth potential and relevance to our needs; and

(5) To evolve an integrated policy towards self-reliance in strategic fields and opening up of av­enues for employment of skilled and trained manpower.

The Seventh Plan provided for an investment of Rs. 22,460 crores (12.5 percent) of the total Plan outlay) in the industrial sector (Rs. 19,710 crores in large and medium industries and Rs. 2,750 crores in village and small scale industries).

The main elements of the Seventh Plan indus­trial strategy were:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(i)Rapid removal of infrastructural constrains, by placing greater emphasis on additional availabil­ity of power through more efficient use of existing capacity as well as the establishment of new power stations including super thermal and nuclear plants.

(ii) Encouragement of modernization and tech­nological up gradation in industries like textiles and sugar.

(iii) Specific targets of productivity for major industries like steel, fertilizers, non-ferrous metals, petro-chemicals, paper and cement were set up for the Plan.

(iv) Export production was proposed to be made an integral part of production in the domestic economy.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(v)Encouragement of “sunrise’ industries such as telecommunications, computers, micro-electron­ics, ceramic composites and bio-technology. Indus­tries were to be encouraged to adopt technologies like fiber optics, lasers, robotics etc for enhancing productivity and quality.

(vi) Location of industries near the small district towns to remove regional disparities and encourage dispersal of industries.

(vii)Taking suitable steps for installing pol­lution control system in large and medium indus­tries.

To promote industrial production, the Sev­enth Plan has laid emphasis on easing infrastructural constraints, liberalisation of industrial licensing policy and other regulations and provision of incentives for rapid development of key areas like electronics.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The Seventh Plan achieved the annual growth rate of 8.5 per cent against the target of 8.7 per cent. In the industrial sector, the manufacturing sector achieved an average growth rate of 8.9 per cent. Within the manufacturing sector, manufacture of electrical machinery and chemical products achieved growth rates of 25.8 per cent and 1 1.7 per cent respectively. But in the mining sector witnessed a slower growth of 5.6 per cent during the Plan.

According to the Planning Commission the factors contributing to the better industrial growth were: (a) improvement in the performance of the infrastructure, viz., power coal etc.; (b) changes in the area licensing and procedures, (c) import of technology, (d) higher import of capital goods, (d) better utilisation of installed capacities, (e) allowing broad-banding of products in a number of industries, (f) liberalising licensing system.