1. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Indian Economy, Unit-IV Planning Commission is said to be the Brainchild of first Prime Minster Jawaharlal Nehru and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Upon Independence, the Planning Commission was setup by a resolution of the Govt. of India in 1950 with the ruling P.M. as the ex-officio chairman.

2. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Centralized planning was the goal of the Planning Commission. It was a socialist era Institution based on the socialist model initiated by Russian Communist Party consisting of five-year Plans. The main function of Planning Commission was to formulate and review five-year plans and again review and monitor their progress from time to time. Fixing of target for sectoral growth and allocate resources to state were important functions of the Planning Commission.,

3. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Planning Commission : Positives and Achievements P.C. laid stress on Infrastructural developments and capacity building. As a result huge investments were made in education, industry, railways and Irrigation. As a result there occurred remarkable growth in educational sectors, investment of huge capital on building educational infrastructure and resultant effect is the setup of numerable school and colleges, even in backward areas. investment of huge capital on building educational infrastructure and School and college drop outs shortened to a good extent. Modern education system has been expanded to vast interiors of the country, along with co-ersive cooperation of private sector with Govt. sector, enhanced the scope and access to education even to backward communities including the tribals.

4. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG The industrial sector, has undergone remarkable improvements during the planning periods. Since 2 nd five year plan, Industrial base of the Indian Economy has been strengthened with the establishments of so many heavy and capital goods industries producing Iron and Steel (Bhilai Steel Plant, Bokaro Steel Plant, Rourkela Steel Plant, Durgapur Steel Plant, Salam Steel Plant etc.), Coal, heavy engineering goods (Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd.), machinery and Machine tools, chemicals and allied products, Petroleum Products. As a result, production in those industries increased to a large extent. India became almost self-sufficient in agriculture and made great progress in capital sector goods and consumer goods sectors.

5. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Planning Commission assisted the Indian economy to develop from a poor backward country to emerging power and credited for the orderly and phased manner in which planning was implemented. Negatives and Problems There were many issues with planning methods followed in India. The drawbacks of the planning adopted via Planning Commission includes : Planning Commission had no structural Mechanism for regular engagement with states. According to Prof. Ashok Rudra “Indian planning process suffered from “Such a preposterous assumption as that of a single decision-maker commanding all the decisions in this vast, overwhelmingly private sector economy”. Though this assumption may be true in the case of a purely socialistic economy, where all the economic resources are owned and controlled by the state. This cannot be true in Indian economy as it is a mixed economy.

6. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Planning Commission failed to solve the issues because there was no effective forum for the resolution of Centre-state and Inter-ministerial negotiations. Inadequate capacity expertise and domain of knowledge was responsible for the establishment of weak network with think- tanks and thus there was lack of access to expertise outside Govt. In solving land reforms, Planning Commission gravely fouled to implement due to variant method and policies used by states neglecting its dictation. According to some experts, Planning Commission was a toothless un-resolute body. It had no power to make union / states / UTs answerable for not achieving the targets setup by the commission.

7. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG. Planning Commission has chalked out policies to be implemented, and designed the plans with “one size fit for all” approach. It was a mistaken step and obviously many plans failed to show tangible results. Planning Commission had no strong motive to implement the objects thus set-forth for the states and UTs, and in most cases, corruption dozed in for mischievous attitude of the implementers. As there was no compulsory monitoring network, plans often missed targets.

8. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG. Why does India need a change from Planning Commission? The contemporary world is governed by constitutional ethos like federalism rather than centralization. As Planning Commission do not advocate federalism, as it was formed under the influence of a command economy, it failed to cater the devised growth to Indian economy with so many variant states and situations not acrumental to the changing world advancing towards separation of power and decentralization and separate idea regarding growth and development.

9. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Co-operative federalism and fiscal federalism will help to meet the diverse needs of different states / UTs in which Planning Commission had failed drastically. Plans have to be formulated by fulfilling the aspirations of states by tailoring the plans to suit their needs and requirements

10. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG NITI Aayog (Lit “Policy Commission) or National Institution for transforming India Aayog is a Policy think – tank of Govt. of India that replaces Planning Commission and aims to involve the states in Economic Policy making in India. It will be providing strategic and technical advice to the central and the state governments i.e. by adopting bottom-up approach rather than traditional Top-down approach as occurred in case of Planning Commission.

11. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Difference between NITI Aayog and Planning Commission. Financial Clout NITI Aayog – To be an advisory body or a think-tank. The powers to allocate fund rested in the Finance Ministry. Planning Commission : Enjoyed the powers to allocate funds to ministries and state Govts. Full time members : NITI Aayog : Two Planning Commission – Had eight full members States’ Role : NITI Aayog – Includes the Chief Ministers of all states and the Lt. Governors of all union territories in its Governing Council, developing more power to the states of the union. Planning Commission : States’ Role was limited to the National Development Council and Annual interaction during plan meetings. Member Say : NITI Aayog – To be known as CEO and to be appointed by the prime minister.

12. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Planning Commission : Secretaries or member Secretaries were appointed through the usual process. Part time Members : NITI Aayog : To have a number of part time members, depending on the need from time to time. Panning Commission ; Full Planning Commission had no provision for part time members. Participation NITI Aayog – Consulting states while making policy and deciding on funds allocation. Final policy will be a result of that. Planning Commission : Policy was formed by the Commission and states were then consulted about allocation of funds. Nature NITI Aayog – It is a think-tank and does not have the power to impose policies Planning Commission : Imposed policies on states and tied allocation of funds with projects it approved.

13. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Aims and Objectives NITI Aayog – It will seek to provide a critical directional and strategic input into the development process. Planning Commission : The hall mark of planning era was to dictate from centre to state one way flow policy. Now it is sought to be replaced by a genuine and continuing partnership of states.

14. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Among the chief objectives of NITI Aayog will be evolving a shared vision of national development priorities sectors, and strategies with active participation of states fostering cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms with the states on a continuous basis and to design strategic and long term policy and programme frameworks and initiatives and monitor their progress.

15. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG The NITI Aayog will provide Govts both at the Central as well as state levels with relevant strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy. Assessments The new national Institution for Transforming India (NITI) will act more like a think tank or forum and execute programmes by taking the states along with them. This is in sharp contrast with the defunct Planning Commission which imposed five year plans and allocated resources while running roughshod over the requests of various states. NITI will include leaders of India’s 29 states and seven union territories. But its full time staff – a deputy chairman, chief executive officer and experts will answer directly to the Prime Minister of India, who will be the chairman.

16. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG. The opposition congress mocked the launch as a cosmetic relabeling exercise – the new body’s acronym – based name means “Policy Commission” in Hindu, suggesting a less bold departure than the English version does. Several believe that is consistent with the negativism that has become the hallmark of the congress. Despite being blamed by critics for the slow growth that long plagued India, the commission survived the onslaught of the market reforms of the early 90’s, drilling Mr. Modi with its interventions when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat.

17. PLANNING COMMISSION AND NITI AAYOG Now the question is whether the new set-up will bring about a seminal change in developmental policy making by decentralizing the process altogether. Is this one a bottom-up setup on opposed to the top-down approach that Planning Commission was famous (or rather infamous ) for ? The Niti Aayog will work towards the following objectives; to evolve a shared vision of national development priorities; to foster cooperative federalism; to develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level; to focus on technology upgradation, among other things. Our Prime Minister is delighted to introduce NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog. It will provide key inputs on various policy matters. NITI Aayog will emerge as an active &important institution that will play a pivotal role in India's development journey in the years to come is the hope of all Indians.