On current evidence, NITI Aayog can best be described as a poor relation to the Planning Commission rather than a brave new initiative. As yet, no significant policy prescriptions have emerged from its pink-and-grey portals, nor does the political establishment - although it includes many first-timers in government - appear to access it for advice, even on matters such as trade negotiations regarding which NITI's experts are world-renowned. Then the usual problems that beset government institutions are already surfacing. Some in it argue for more members to distribute the workload. There also appears to be some variance over the responsibility of the office bearers. Are they supposed to be policy advisors, as their expertise suggests, or quasi-political liaisons with state governments?
Certainly, it was common knowledge that the Planning Commission had outlived its utility in that form once controls were relaxed and the states came to play a bigger role in economic decision making. In the last years of the United Progressive Alliance, the chief ministers of some of India's better-run states - Mr Modi in Gujarat and J Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu notable among them - were vocal in their objections to spending priorities being dictated by a centralised body. In addition, over the past few years several decisions devolved far greater decision-making powers to the states in terms of how they choose to spend central grants and funds for welfare schemes. This diminishes one of the Planning Commission's major roles. Another function, that of resource allocation, has been shifted to the finance ministry. Clearly, NITI Aayog should have been freed up to find an alternative role. But it is unfortunate that the political leadership has not adequately empowered it to do so, or structured it to fulfil its initial promise.
NITI Aayog would have been in an ideal position to provide the government, which suffers the lack of a sound advisory establishment, with the crucial research heft and intellectual underpinning for its many policy initiatives, making it a genuine and powerful agent of transformation. There is still time - many bemoan the lack of new ideas emerging from stultified Union ministries. The NITI Aayog could be freshly empowered to serve as an advocate for progressive, market-friendly reform, so the political leadership has additional input on whatever policy proposals may emerge from the traditional bureaucracy.