Change, as they say, is the only constant. What is relevant in a certain context at a given period of time and environment may cease to be so in a different context, a different time or a changed environment. This applies as much to institutions and organisations as to people, ideas and concepts. And so, when confronted with change the choices are limited to just two — change with the times, or risk being consigned to the dustbin of history. The Planning Commission, established 64 years ago, brings up the issues of time, context and environment. Between 1950, when it was established, and now, the times have changed. The then newly independent India was struggling with a damaged and rudimentary economy and needed an orderly assessment of its resources and planning for development. It is much better organised today in economic terms, and even at current rates of growth is among the fastest-growing in the world. The Planning Commission was then the vehicle that enabled the public sector to rise to the “commanding heights of the economy”; today, the private sector is the chosen vehicle for industrial growth after the tectonic shift of 1991 when licensing and controls were abolished or eased. The global environment has also changed, as has India’s place in it. In today’s globalised world, state controls over much of the economy are passé and seen as hindering enterprise. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has merely articulated what was accepted and known for the last decade and more: the Planning Commission in its original form needed to be changed.
So, what next? Centrally directed planning may be an anachronism in these days of greater federal autonomy. Yet, resource allocation among the Centre and the States and between Ministries and programmes at the Centre is an important governance activity. So are coordination, monitoring and evaluation of publicly funded projects and schemes, especially in the social sector. The executive wings of the government under the different Ministries are not equipped for such tasks. Such monitoring by Central Ministries will not be acceptable to States, especially those ruled by a party that is not in power at the Centre. And what about one of the most important roles of the Planning Commission — of being a repository of data and information on varied sectors of the economy? Ministries and government departments routinely depend on the sectoral studies and data generated by the Planning Commission. While the Planning Commission may go, the important tasks it has been carrying out will still remain to be done. At the moment, the government would seem to have decided to abolish the Commission without having a clear alternative in view to address some of its essential tasks.