Define a plan.
A plan spells out how the resources of a nation should be put to use. It should have some general goals as well as specific objectives which are to be achieved within a specified period of time.
In India, plans were of five years duration and were called five year plans. The plan documents specify the objectives to be attained in the five years of a plan as well as what is to be achieved over a period of twenty years. This long-term plan is called the perspective plan.
A plan should have some clearly specified goals. The goals of the five year plans were: growth, modernisation, self-reliance and equity.
Explanation
The textbook definition is explicitly provided in Box 2.2. A plan essentially outlines resource allocation for national development with time-bound objectives. The context also mentions that India adopted five year plans from the former Soviet Union, and these plans form the basis for longer-term perspective plans covering twenty years.