What was the purpose of the perspective plan in India's planning process?

To achieve long-term goals over a period of twenty years

The correct answer is Option 2: To achieve long-term goals over a period of twenty years 

In India's historical planning framework, a perspective plan was designed to provide a strategic roadmap for the nation's development over a long duration of twenty years. The specific objectives of each Five-Year Plan are detailed within the Five-Year Plan documents themselves, based on the prevailing economic conditions of that specific period.

NCERT : "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 (we borrowed this from the former Soviet Union, the pioneer in national planning). Our plan documents upto the year 2017 not only specify the objectives to be attained in the five years of a plan but also what is to be achieved over a period of twenty years. This long-term plan is called ‘perspective plan’. The five year plans were supposed to provide the basis for the perspective plan.