Amity Law
School Center - II
Submitted to Mrs. Tanu Sachdeva
Submitted By Name Harshit Singh A11911113183
Name Akansha Singh Chaudhary A11911113161
Name Saurabh Thomas George A11911113139
Semester 5
Section C
Acknowledgement
This project was completed under the, able guidance of
Mrs. Tanu Sachdeva. Her continuous efforts and guidance
made this project successful. This project helped us in
understanding the concepts of Economics in a better way.
We thank Maam for allotting us this wonderful project.
Contents
1.Introduction
2.History
3.Changes in institution
4.Organization
5.Functions
6.Sectors Involved
7.Criticism
8.Bibliography
Introduction
India has undergone a shift over the past six decades - politically, economically,
socially, technologically as well as demographically. The role of Government in
national development has seen a parallel evolution. Keeping with these
changing times, the Government of India has decided to set up NITI Aayog
(National Institution for Transforming India), in place of the erstwhile Planning
Commission, as a means to better serve the needs and aspirations of the
people of India.
The new institution will be a catalyst to the developmental process; nurturing
an overall enabling environment, through a holistic approach to development
going beyond the limited sphere of the Public Sector and Government of India.
This will be built on the foundations of:
An empowered role of States as equal partners in national development;
operating on the principle of Cooperative Federalism.
A knowledge hub of internal as well as external resources; serving as a
repository of good governance best practices, and a Think Tank offering
domain knowledge as well as strategic expertise to all levels of
government.
A collaborative platform facilitating Implementation; by monitoring
progress, plugging gaps and bringing together the various Ministries at
the Centre and in States, in the joint pursuit of developmental goals.
History
Before Niti Aayog came into existence was known as Planning Commission of
India. On 15, August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced
scrapping of Planning Commission and was replaced by an Institution
named NITI Aayog.1
The Planning Commission2 was an institution in the Government of India,
which formulated India's Five-Year Plans, among other functions. It is located
at Yojana Bhawan, Sansad Marg, and New Delhi. It was established in
accordance with article 39 of the constitution which is a part of directive
principles of state policy.
Rudimentary economic planning, deriving from the sovereign authority of the
state, was first initiated in India in 1938 by Congress President Netaji Subhash
Chandra Bose, who had been persuaded by Meghnad Saha to set up a National
Planning Committee.3 The British Raj also formally established a planning
board that functioned from 1944 to 1946. Industrialists and economists
independently formulated at least three development plans in 1944. Some
scholars have argued that the introduction of planning as an instrument was
intended to transcend the ideological divisions between Gandhi and
Nehru.4 Other scholars have argued that the Planning Commission as a central
agency in the context of plural democracy in India needs to carry out more
functions than rudimentary economic planning.
1 Business Standard. ANI. 15 August 2014
2 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/planning-commissionrenamed-as-neeti-ayog/articleshow/45714284.cms
3Vigyan Prasar Science Portal
4 Partha Chatterjee, 2001 "Development planning and the Indian state" in State
and Politics in India
After India gained independence, a formal model of planning was adopted, and
accordingly the Planning Commission, reporting directly to the Prime Minister
of India was established on 15 March 1950, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru as the Chairman. Authority for creation of the Planning Commission
was not derived from the Constitution of India or statute; it is an arm of the
central Government of India.
The first Five-Year Plan was launched in 1951, focusing mainly on development
of the agricultural sector. Two subsequent Five-Year Plans were formulated
before 1965, when there was a break because of the Indo-Pakistan conflict. Two
successive years of drought, devaluation of the currency, a general rise in
prices and erosion of resources disrupted the planning process and after three
Annual Plans between 1966 and 1969, the fourth Five-Year Plan was started in
1969.
The Eighth Plan could not take off in 1990 due to the fast changing political
situation at the Center, and the years 199091 and 199192 were treated as
Annual Plans. The Eighth Plan was finally launched in 1992 after the initiation
of structural adjustment policies.
For the first eight Plans the emphasis was on a growing public sector with
massive investments in basic and heavy industries, but since the launch of the
Ninth Plan in 1997, the emphasis on the public sector has become less
pronounced and the current thinking on planning in the country, in general, is
that it should increasingly be of an indicative nature.
In 2014, the Central Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided
to wind down the Planning Commission. It was proposed to replace it with a
more dynamic organization that is more popular and connected to the times.
There have been various perspectives discussed across the spectrum of the
Indian intelligentsia about this move. It has been chiefly viewed as a cultivation
of Modi's extreme hatredness towards Nehru and his socialism. Prime Minister
Modi has launched a discussion board on Twitter to solicit opinions from the
people of the country on what should replace the Planning Commission.
Changes in the Institution
This changing reality and growing mismatch has been recognized for years now
with experts, including many from within the erstwhile Planning Commission,
recommending appropriate changes:
The 8th Five Year Plan document - the very first after the liberalization of 1991
itself categorically stated that, as the role of Government was reviewed and
restructured, the role and functions of the Planning Commission too needed to
be rethought. The Planning Commission needed to be reformed to keep up with
changing trends; letting go of old practices and beliefs whose relevance had
been lost, and adopting new ones based on the past experiences of India as well
as other nations.
The Standing Committee on Finance of the 15th Lok Sabha observed in its
35th Report on Demand for Grants (2011-12) that the Planning Commission
"has to come to grips with the emerging social realities to re-invent it to make it
more relevant and effective for aligning the planning process with economic
reforms and its consequences, particularly for the poor".
Former Prime Minister and noted economist, Dr. Manmohan Singh - in his
farewell address to the Commission in April 2014 - also urged reflection on
What the role of the Planning Commission needs to be in this new world?
Are we still using tools and approaches which were designed for a
different era?
What additional roles should the Planning Commission Play?
What capacities does it need to build to ensure that it continues to be
relevant to the growth process?
Organization
NITI Aayog is a lean organisation, modelled as a network of expertise; focusing
on functionality, flexibility and domain knowledge.
NITI Aayog comprises of:
Chairperson: Prime Minister of India
Governing Council: comprising the Chief Ministers of all States and Lt.
Governors of Union Territories.
Regional Councils: Is formed to address specific issues and contingencies
impacting more than one state or region. Strategy and Planning in the NITI
Aayog is anchored from State-level; with Regional Councils convened by the
Prime Minister for identified priority domains, put under the joint leadership of
related sub-groups of States (grouped around commonalities which could be
geographic, economic, social or otherwise) and Central Ministries. Regional
Councils:
Have specified tenures, with the mandate to evolve strategy and oversee
implementation.
Be jointly headed by one of the group Chief Ministers and a
corresponding Central Minister.
Include the sectoral Central Ministers and Secretaries concerned, as well
as State Ministers and Secretaries.
Be linked with corresponding domain experts and academic institutions.
Have a dedicated support cell in the NITI Aayog Secretariat.
States are empowered to drive the national agenda. As a consequence,
deliberations are more grass-roots informed, and recommendations have more
ownership, given their joint formulation.
Special Invitees: experts, specialists and practitioners with relevant domain
knowledge as special invitees nominated by the Prime Minister.
Full-time Organizational Framework: comprises of, in addition to the Prime
Minister as the Chairperson:
Vice-Chairperson: to be appointed by the Prime Minister.
Members: full-time.
Part-time Members: maximum of 2, from leading universities, research
organizations and other relevant institutions in an ex-officio capacity.
Part time members on a rotational basis.
Ex-Officio Members: maximum of 4 members of the Union Council of
Ministers to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
Chief Executive Officer: to be appointed by the Prime Minister for a fixed
tenure, in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.
Secretariat: as deemed necessary.
Present Members
The various members of NITI Aayog5 are:
1. Chairperson: Prime Minister Narendra Modi
2. CEO: Sindhushree Khullar IAS
5www.pmindia.gov.in.
3. Vice Chairperson: Arvind Panagariya
4. Ex-Officio Members: Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Suresh
Prabhu and Radha Mohan Singh
5. Special Invitees: Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Zubin Irani and Thawar Chand
Gehlot
6. Full-time Members: Bibek Debroy & V. K. Saraswat
7. Governing Council: All Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of
States and Union Territories
Functions
Cooperative and Competitive Federalism: Be the primary platform for
operationalizing Cooperative Federalism; enabling States to have active
participation in the formulation of national policy, as well as achieving
time-bound implementation of quantitative and qualitative targets
through the combined authority of the Prime Minister and Chief
Ministers. This is a means of systematic and structured interactions
between the Union and State Governments, to better understand
developmental issues, as well as forge a consensus on strategies and
implementation mechanisms. The above marks the replacement of the
one-way flow of policy from centre-to-state, with a genuine and
continuing Centre-State partnership.
Shared National Agenda: Evolve a shared vision of national development
priorities and strategies, with the active involvement of States. This
provides the framework national agenda for the Prime Minister and
Chief Ministers to implement.
States Best Friend at the Centre: Support States in addressing their own
challenges, as well as building on strengths and comparative advantages.
This is through various means, such as coordinating with Ministries,
championing their ideas at the centre, providing consultancy support
and building capacity.
Decentralized Planning: Restructure the planning process into a bottomup model, empowering States, and guiding them to further empower local
governments; in developing mechanisms to formulate credible plans at
the village level, which are progressively aggregated up the higher levels
of government.
Vision & Scenario Planning: Design medium and long-term strategic
frameworks of the big picture vision of Indias future - across schemes,
sectors, regions and time; factoring in all possible alternative
assumptions and counterfactuals. They are the drivers of the national
reforms agenda, especially focused on identifying critical gaps and
harnessing untapped potentialities. The same is intrinsically dynamic
with its progress and efficacy constantly monitored for necessary midcourse recalibration; and the overall environment (domestic and global)
continuously scanned for incorporating evolving trends and addressing
emerging challenges.
Domain Strategies: Build a repository of specialized domain expertise,
both sectoral and cross-sectoral; to assist Ministries of the Central and
State governments in their respective development planning as well
problem solving needs. This enables the imbibing of good governance
best practices, both national as well as international; especially with
regards to structural reform.
Sounding Board: Be an in-house sounding board whetting and refining
government positions, through objective criticisms and comprehensive
counter-views.
Network of Expertise: Main-stream external ideas and expertise into
government policies and programmes through a collaborative community
of national and international experts, practitioners and other partners.
This entails Governments link to the outside world, roping in academia
(universities, think tanks and research institutions), private sector
expertise, and the people at large, for close involvement in the policy
making process.
Knowledge and Innovation hub: Be an accumulator as well as
disseminator of research and best practices on good governance, through
a state-of-the-art Resource Centre which identifies, analyses, shares and
facilitates replication of the same.
Harmonization: Facilitate harmonization of actions across different layers
of government, especially when involving cross-cutting and overlapping
issues across multiple sectors; through communication, coordination,
collaboration and convergence amongst all stakeholders. The emphasis is
on bringing all together on an integrated and holistic approach to
development.
Conflict Resolution: Provides a platform for mutual resolution of intersectoral, inter-departmental, inter-state as well as centre-state issues;
facilitating consensus acceptable and beneficial to all, to bring about
clarity and speed in execution.
Coordinating interface with the World: Be the nodal point for strategically
harnessing global expertise and resources coming in from across
nations, multi-lateral institutions and other international organizations,
in Indias developmental process.
Internal Consultancy: Offer an internal consultancy function to central
and state governments on policy and program design; providing
frameworks adhering to basic design principles such as decentralization,
flexibility and a focus on results. This would include specialized skills
such as structuring and executing Public Private Partnerships.
Capacity building: Enable capacity building and technology up-gradation
across government, benchmarking with latest global trends and
providing managerial and technical knowhow.
Monitoring and Evaluation: Monitor the implementation of policies and
programmes, and evaluate their impact; through rigorous tracking of
performance metrics and comprehensive program evaluations.
Sectors Involved
Agricultural
Communication Information and Information Technology Division
Educational
Employment
Environment & Forests
Health
Industry
Minerals
Infrastructure
Power and Energy
Rural Development
Science & Technology
Social Justice
Urban Affairs
Women Empowerment
Water Resources
Criticism
Many political parties and their spokesperson criticized this change and gave
following views.
The government's move to replace the Planning Commission with a new
institution called 'NITI Aayog was criticized by opposition parties of India. The
Congress sought to know whether the reform introduced by the BJP-led
government was premised on any meaningful programme or if the move was
simply born out of political opposition to the party that ran the Planning
Commission for over 60 years. "The real issue is do you (the government) have a
substantive meaningful programme to reform the Planning Commission?"
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. "If you (the BJP
government) simply want to abolish it (the commission), because it is
something which (Jawaharlal) Nehru created for this country and you don't like
Nehru or simply because it was run by the Congress for 60 years and you don't
like the Congress, that is pitiable," he said.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist said a mere change in the name would
not yield the desired results. "Mere changing this nomenclature and this sort of
gimmickry is not going to serve the purpose. Let us wait and see what the
government is eventually planning," CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said.
The Planning Commission used to plan policy. I don't know what the
government is trying to do by merely changing the nomenclature from Planning
Commission to Neeti Ayog," said Congress spokesman Manish Tewari.
However, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of BJP accused
the critics of being ignorant of facts.
With the new set of changes, the state governments no longer need to have a
begging attitude and instead take independent steps for development, said
Sitharaman. With this the NDA government is fulfilling one more of its key
promises of robust federalism.
"The idea to create an institution where states' leaders will be part and parcel of
the collective thinking with the Centre and other stakeholders in formulating a
vision for the development of the country is right on as compared with the
previous structure, where a handful of people formulated the vision and then
presented it to the National Development Council (NDC). This was not entirely
absorbed and adopted by the latter," said former Planning Commission member
Arun Maira.
In fact, a recent survey of expert opinions in the magazine "Business World"
shows that either a very clear distinction of roles of NDC, Governing Council
and Inter State Council or a merger of one or two with a vibrant and functional
ISC can serve the two key goals of such forums: policy development and
conflict resolution.6
6 NITI's Destiny and the Federal Question, Business World. 8 April, 2015
Bibliography
Printed Sources
1. Development planning and the Indian state by Partha Chatterjee
2. Business World Magazine
Websites
1. www.pmindia.gov.in.
2. www.economictimes.indiatimes.com
3. www.vigyanprasar.gov.in
