The Planning Commission may have had a lot on its plate, but the new NITI Aayog has an equally overwhelming task list to achieve. Will it deliver? Or will it become one of the many think tanks?
HarsH sHrivastava // The formation of the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog is a positive first step for sure. It can definitely do better than the Planning Commission, simply because the latter was trying to do too many things at the same time. Among other things, it was taking care of money allocation as well as giving technical advice. The Commission was not being able to do both together primarily because of the people it had – mid-tier government officials who were running the government way.
The Planning Commission had two constituencies. One was the Government of India, and the other was state governments. Allocation of money is now with the finance ministry, which is excellent. There was no point of it being with the Planning Commission in the first place. The ministers simply had the attitude, “We know what we want; who are you to tell us?”
With the focus on state governments with NITI Aayog, things can change drastically for the better. The Aayog will help state governments focus better on their development goals. The state governments have no one who argues and lobbies their point of view. The NITI Aayog can play that role. Small states have small, persistent issues and they need advice on them. Also, they can share best practices with other states and can learn from each other, who can help them perform better. In fact, NITI Aayog can be the place for idea exchange and how to make things happen.
Money has not been a problem with states of late. A number of them might still know what to do, but it’s the how to do and what not to do that can now come into play with NITI Aayog stepping in. But to make that happen, it needs a different category of people, a different level of officials. The organisation will have to work like a think tank.
One of the biggest drawbacks of the Planning Commission was its long procedures and the seniority row that more often than not came into play. “You are a 1995 batch pass-out and I am a 1988 batch pass-out and thus know things better”; all this complicated a lot of things in the Planning Commission. Now if the NITI Aayog is also run like just another government department, then there will be a problem here, too.
One of the biggest drawbacks with The Planning Commission was that it had become a parking place for senior IAS officials. When one didn’t know what to do with a senior official, he was simply put in the Commission. While I was a consultant for the Twelfth Planning Commission, I had an excellent boss in Arun Myra. Montek Singh Ahluwalia also had some superb ideas, but which could not be put into practice because of red tapism.
Looking back, nobody was happy with the Planning Commission. State governments used to complain, the Government of India didn’t like its ministers being told what to do, the finance ministry didn’t like its power of finance being taken away and so on.
The internal arrangement needs to dramatically change. I wish all that changes with the NITI Aayog. I certainly see a big chance for that happening, now that the basic structure will hopefully be changed.
Now is the perfect time to make it a flat organisation, an organisation where only goodwork is what should matter. How does it matter what batch you are, how senior you are? What should matter is how well you work. How well do you listen to other people is what will make the change. At the same time, NITI Aayog has to win the trust of state governments. It can’t just direct and dictate. What also need to change are the payouts and the attitude. If we need to get the best people, we also need to be flexible.
The goal is right and the goal is clear. The state governments need all the support. The formation of the NITI Aayog is definitely a step in the right direction and I am sure, it will work out well, provided we change the basic structure.
prakasH bHandari // The Planning Commission, which for more than six decades planned the development and growth process of the country, was the Nehruvian era’s gift to the nation. It was founded with Nehru’s socialistic idea meant for commanded economy. The Planning Commission enjoyed the power to allocate funds to various ministries and state governments.
But the states in the now-defunct Planning Commission had no say and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who as Gujarat’s chief minister had to beg the Planning Commission for fund allocations. It forced him to redefine the role of the Planning Commission and instead set up an advisory body or a think tank. Thus, the NITI Aayog that has come to replace the Planning Commission would not have the power to allocate funds and the fund allocation power would rest with the finance ministry.
The inclusion of all state chief ministers and Lt Governors in the Aayog, which will have the Prime Minister as the chairman and Arvind Panagariya, an Indian economy expert as the deputy chairman, has given a psychological boost. There is also a perception change that has been made where the states would have a larger say in the development and growth process. The government’s move to set up the NITI Aayog was opposed by the Congress, which wanted to know whether the reform introduced by the BJP-led government would give the country any meaningful programme. The Congress felt that the new commission was set up only to wipe out the idea of Nehruvian approach to the socialistic ideas. There may be some truth to that.
On the other hand, the states are happy as the new set of changes would them a greater role to play and they would be able to take independent steps for development.
The NITI Ayog is being touted as an institution that would propagate liberal economy and Modi has decided to follow the model that US-based Indian origin economist Jagdish Bhagwati’s school of thought has suggested. The appointment of Arvind Panagariya, a disciple of Bhagwati, proves the point. Bhagwati’s model is make the states a stakeholder in formulating a vision for the development, thus replacing the old system of a handful of the Planning Commission members preparing the vision document, which was accepted in toto by the National Development Council.
The agenda in front of the NITI Aayog, however, will not be an easy one to fulfil. It is hoped that the Aayog will be able to provide a critical directional and strategic input into the development process, leaving behind the old legacy of the centreto- the-state one-way flow policy of the Planning Commission. One also wishes the new think tank will put an end to the slow and tardy implementation process by fostering better inter-ministry coordination and better coordination between the Centre and the states. NITI Aayog should emerge as a think-tank to will provide governments at the Centre and state levels with relevant strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy.
However, this will be achieved only by setting up strategic policies where the states ruled by different political parties with different political agenda think uniformly in the true interest of the nation. Isn’t that a bit too ambitious? The NITI Aayog will also have to cater to the needs of the states and will have to watch out for falling into the trap of losing sight of woods for the trees. One only hopes the NITI Aayog will be able to make the government an enabler, rather than a provider.