Modi may chair high-level meeting on 26 August to decide structure of Planning Commission

In his maiden address to the nation on India’s sixty-eighth Independence Day celebrations, Prime Minister NarendraModi announced theend of the decades-old Planning Commission, but little is known about the new body that will take its place or who will be a part of it, apart from the Prime Minister himself.

During his speech, Modi had said," “We will very soon set up a new institution in place of Planning Commission…the internal situation of the country has changed, global environment has changed…We need an institution of creative thinking and for optimum utilisation of youth capability.”

A slightly clearer picture may be emerging now about the new body that some say could be called the National Development and Reforms Commission. Others say it could be named something that isfar more distinct from the Chinese Planning Body which has the same name.

More from Economy

Inflation likely to be a big focus area for budget 2024, say sources Explained: Will the Bank of Japan break tradition and raise interest rates?

The Prime Minister, however, is likely tohair a high-level meeting at Yojana Bhawan on August 26 to finalise the broad contours of the new institution that will replace the body.

According to a report in the Economic Times, the Planning Commission will raise the issue of the role of the new institution vis-a-vis the states and its thinking on the National Development Council (NDC), the highest federal decision-making body in the country.

According to another_Economic Times_ report, the newplanning body with five members will continue to be formally chaired bythe Prime Minister andcould have former oil minister Suresh Prabhu leading it, with other likely members being economists Arvind Panagariya and Bibek Debroy, who were reportedly advising Modi’s core campaign team before the elections.

The other two members could be an academic with expertise in science and technology and a social science expert, the report said.

A New Indian Express report has suggested that former managing director of Delhi Metro, E Sreedharan, former Indian Air Force Chief during the Kargil incursion, AY Tipnis, and chairman of HDFC, Deepak Parekh, could also find themselves heading different sections of the planning body.

While the terms of reference of the new body haven’t been fixed yet, the new planning body will reportedly be able to get in experts from other domains and will be tasked with charting the future of the country’s economy, including the implementation of the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ campaign for boosting manufacturing in the country.

Resource allocation to the states, one of the primary responsibilities of the Planning Commission, will now become the responsibility of the Finance Ministry and the new body could instead be tasked with implementing Modi’s “Vision 2020” for growth in the Indian economy.

While there are doubts over whether the Prime Minister can just decide to do away with the planning body before its ongoing five-year plan comes to an end in 2017, some say that since the body wasn’t a constitutional body in the first place, it didn’t pose any major hurdles for Modito do away with it.

Former Planning Commission members have also questioned how powerful this move would make the Finance Ministry since it would allocate funds to states for developmental projects, and whether its decisions would be accepted by states where Chief Ministers of opposing parties were in power.