Even as questions are being raised regarding the relevance of India’s apex planning body, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh believes that the Planning Commission had never lost relevance though he does wish to see it evolve and restructure itself.
The prime minister has asked the commission to revive the practice of producing annual plan reports and regularly brief the Union Cabinet on policy issues.
He also wants that the planning body should not only decide outlays for various government programmes but also reach out to the grassroots level to make a difference to the outcomes. This includes involvement of officials in tracking state-level development, tour states, review implementation of central government-funded programmes and generate reports on state-level and central-level economic performance.
In a meeting with all the Plan panel members held earlier this week, he stated that the Planning Commission should not only assist in formulating outlays but also get involved in achieving sustainable outcomes. According to Singh, the planning body should function as the nation’s think-tank which involves itself in the processes of both ideation and implementation.
“In the meeting, a special focus was given by the PM on how Planning Commission members should be more actively involved at the grassroots level. The aim is to make the commission a body which not only decides outlays but makes a difference to outcomes,” said Planning Commission member Mihir Shah, who was present in the meeting.
Singh envisions the commission functioning as an “essay in persuasion” which translates into it being a dynamic body which is involved in general as well as specific hurdles faced by government plans at all levels. The prime minister also added the need to evolve more experts from different sectors in varying capacities to make the commission more relevant to the changing social and economic milieu of the nation.
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The Planning Commission, which currently has 25 senior-level advisers, was set up in 1950 with the objective of raising the standard of living of people by augmenting production and optimising available resources. However, planning in India has been restricted to formulation of schemes and deciding outlays while issues like quality and implementation have taken a back seat.
| PLANNING COMMISION: AS PRIME MINISTER SEES IT |
| * Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the commission to revive the practice of producing annual plan reports and regularly brief the Cabinet on policy issues |
| * The planning body should not only decide outlays for various programmes but also reach out to the grassroots level to make a difference to outcomes |
| * The commission should function as the nation’s think tank, which involves itself in the processes of both ideation and implementation |
| * Singh envisions the commission as a dynamic body involved in general as well as specific hurdles faced by government plans at all levels |
| * There is a need to evolve more experts from different sectors to make the commission more relevant to the changing social and economic milieu of the country |
The process of restructuring the Planning Commission is set to be spearheaded by new members like Arun Maira, Mihir Shah and K Kasturirangan who are trying to add a new perspective to the act of formulating national plans. The difference is expected to be felt in the mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12), which is set to be presented in March.
The prime minister had also expressed concern regarding the rising food inflation, which reached a 11-year high of 19.95 per cent in the second week of December, primarily due to supply-side concerns fuelled by lack of monsoon. However, discussions indicated that the damage due to agricultural output would not be as bad as expected and increased supply from government stocks would help ease inflationary pressures.