NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi-led NDA government is set to replace the now-defunct Planning Commission (that had earned the dubious distinction of being a parking lot for cronies of the erstwhile UPA government) with a development and reforms council on the lines of China’s National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC).
While announcing the dismantling of the Soviet era-styled plan panel, in his speech on Independence Day on Friday, Prime Minister Modi said: “The internal situation of the country has changed, the global environment has changed... If we have to take India forward, then states will have to be taken forward. The importance of the federal structure is more important today than it was in the last 60 years.”
The proposed multi-member, ‘in-with’ body is expected to be very contemporary in its thought and being. It will be under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister’s office, and the Prime Minister will most likely be ex-officio chairman. Eminent personalities from both the public and corporate sectors are likely to be roped in.
The names of three individuals with proven track record in their respective fields are already being bandied about. The first is E Sreedharan, former managing director of the ‘gold standard’ Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which he headed from 1995 till 2012. The second is the highly-decorated former Air Chief Marshal (retd) AY Tipnis, head of the Indian Air Force from Dec 31, 1998 to Dec 31, 2001. Tipnis supervised IAF’s air operations during the Kargil incursion in 1999. The third is banker, economist and chairman of HDFC Deepak Parekh. The three are tipped to head different sections of the apex body.
The proposed panel will be the apex think-tank with an overarching view of India’s development needs from infrastructure to security, among other things. It will also look at contentious state-Centre and inter-state issues to provide a smooth road-map for the uniform development of the country.
Once the proposed panel is in place, agencies like the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council and other overlapping plan bodies will brought under its umbrella.
“It will be ‘a first-to-go’ powerful body of the government. And, as is being contemplated, it will look into economic, social, infrastructure and other concerns that need the immediate intervention and attention of the government,” an official said requesting anonymity.“A resolution enabling the formation of the new panel will be passed by the government within the next fortnight for it to start operations soon,” the official added.
China’s NDRC, along whose lines India proposes to develop its new plan panel, was formerly known as China’s State Planning Commission. It is a macro economic management agency under the Chinese State Council and has broad administrative and planning control over the Chinese economy. The Commission has 26 functional departments.