Homecoming for Montek

Appointed Plan panel deputy chief.

The government yesterday reconstituted the Planning Commission and appointed economist and former finance secretary, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, as its deputy chairman. It has also appointed seven new members in the Plan panel.

According to sources, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is the chairman of the commission, took personal initiative in appointing some of the leading personalities in various fields, including agriculture, women, education, and other social sectors in the Plan panel.

Ahluwalia was Member (Infrastructure and Industry), Planning Commission, before he was headhunted by the International Monetary Fund to be the director of its Independent Evaluation Office in July 2001. He is expected to relinquish his post next month.

Ahluwalia was in New Delhi recently en route Beijing and had met both Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Ahluwalia, 61, who holds MA and M.Phil degrees from Oxford University, was a part of the then finance minister Manmohan Singh's team in 1991 as his economic affairs secretary.

He played a key role in the liberalisation process and went on to become the finance secretary in 1993.

The new Plan panel members are Kirit Parikh, former director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research, Mumbai; VL Chopra, former director general, Indian Council of Agricultural Research; Balchandra Mungekar, vice-chancellor, Mumbai University; Abhijit Sen, professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Syeda Hamid, member, National Commission for Women; BN Yugandhar, former director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Institute of Administration, Mussoorie; and Anwar-ul Hoda, former deputy director general, World Trade Organisation.