The Next Stage of Planning in India

After considerable examination, the government has released the Niti Aayog’s Vision Statement up to 2020 (Niti Aayog 2017). We examine it from the planning angle and for its sectoral perspective for agriculture, rural development and the manufacturing sector. The approach is to analyse the policy stance of the present National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government as stated in recent official documents and to see if it has any relationship with past plans in terms of concepts or programme details.

The growth strategy of the NDA government is unequivocal and unconditional as clearly stated in the vision statement. The NDA government was elected on the promise of abolishing planning. Strangely, the then Planning Commission decided to hold a meeting to which “experts” were invited on 24 August 2014. I was also on the list of invitees. When I remonstrated that it was not useful to participate in a process with necromaniacal intentions, I was told somewhat severely that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had decided on who should attend the meeting. Being somewhat traditional, I accepted, because the PMO’s authority cannot be lightly questioned. In my invited Raj Krishna Memorial lecture I had addressed the issue of “The Next Stage of Planning” (Alagh 2014). A number of participants at the meeting argued that reform of the Planning Commission was an ongoing issue, in an economy following the Manmohan Singh 1991 liberalisation path.