Many economists have hailed India’s economic performance under the country’s first three Five-Year Plans, a seeming exception to the rule that central economic planners do more harm than good. However, a close look at the neglected work of father and daughter economists B. R. Shenoy and Sudha Shenoy shows that despite impressive GDP growth, India under central planning suffered from both a stagnation in living standards and a massive malinvestment of resources in heavy industry.

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