Planning Commission has now been dissolved and replaced by NITI Aayog.
"The conclusion (of the book) was as we found in the Planning Commission, is that we don't work very well with each other," Maira said while releasing his book 'An Upstart in Government: Journey of Change and Learning'.
He said various government departments work in silos instead of working together.
"The private sector mistrusts the government and vice-a-versa. The civil society mistrusts both the government and private sector. So, when we talk about partnerships -- public-private partnerships or I would say people-public-private partnerships, we are very poor at it," Maira said, adding that everything gets stuck here as stakeholders can't come to agreements.
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"So, the book is about how to prevent the bottlenecks arising or when they have risen how to quickly dissolve them by coming to agreements together. It's a book about converting contentions into co-operations," he added.
Maira said he wrote the book when his friends asked him about his experience and learning in the five-year tenure at the Planning Commission.
"So, people wanted to know what was it like working with the Planning Commission and the government at that time. They wanted to know what I had learnt," he recalled.
Maira had held several senior positions in the Tata Group and abroad for 25 years until 1989. He was also chairman of The Boston Consulting Group India until April 2008.