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Planning Commission

The Planning Commission was a Government of India agency whose primary responsibility was to develop the country’s Five-Year Plans. The concept was inspired by Joseph Stalin’s Five Year Plan, which was adopted in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. In 1938, Meghnad Saha who was an Indian astrophysicist who developed the Saha ionisation equation, and the Former Member of Parliament(3 April 1952 – 16 February 1956) urged Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the Congress president at the time to form a National Planning Committee. Bose with Atul Tiwari and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru founded rudimentary economic planning in 1938. The head of this Planning Committee was Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, commonly known as Sir MV, an Indian civil engineer and the 19th Diwan of Mysore. In addition, the British government also established an Advisory Planning Board, led by K.C. Neogy who was an Indian Politician of the time from West Bengal. The board was operational for two years from 1944 to 1946. During its operation, the board recommended the establishment of a Planning Commission that could dedicate its full attention to the task of planned development.  Ultimately, in March 1950, the Indian government established the Planning Commission. To play a significant role in societal and economic transformation in accordance with the directive principles of state policy.

Functions of the Planning Commission

The Planning Commission’s work was linked to the economic and social responsibilities assigned to the Indian government by the Indian Constitution’s directive principles. The Directive Principles of State Policy focused on the state’s responsibility to eliminate inequity in the ownership of wealth and means of production, as well as ensured that its citizens had appropriate means of subsistence.

The planning commission’s function was to:

  1. Assist in the planning of India’s capital (money), material (resources), and human resources, as well as the compromise of people with tech expertise and the examination of opportunities to increase those appropriate resources that are explored to be insufficient concerning the country’s needs.
  2. Develop a more profitable and well-balanced plan that takes most of the country’s resources.
  3. Summarise the phases in which the enterprise should be run on the basis of importance, and suggest how resources should be shared to ensure that each stage is completed successfully.
  4. Identify the factors that could have caused the rate of economic progress to slow.
  5. Determine the criteria that must be placed for the process to be completed within the country’s legally binding socio political position.
  6. Find out what kind of machinery was required to ensure that each stage of the plan was carried out correctly in all aspects.
  7. Review the progress that was made in the functioning of each phase of the project on a regular basis, and make any necessary adjustments to the policy and strategy that were regarded to be critical for the project’s success.

  8. Organisation: The Planning Commission’s composition had a significant change from its inception to the end. The planning commission’s internal structure is outlined below. 

  9. Chairman: The planning commission was chaired by India’s prime minister. Although India’s prime minister only attended the Planning Commission’s most critical meetings.

  10. Deputy Chairman: The deputy chairman was in-charge of the commission’s day-to-day operations. The deputy chairman was normally a member of the ruling party of the time and, in most cases, a member of a Cabinet ministry, though membership in the ministry was not compulsorily required.

  11. Members: The members of the Planning Commission were divided into two categories: full-time members who were the eminent public figures, administrators, economists, or technical experts; and significant Cabinet Ministers who attended only important meetings.

  12. Office of the Commission: The Commission’s office was made up of different techniques and topic departments that aid the commission in its work. Each division of the commission was led by an ‘advisor,’ who used to be a senior officer or specialist.

Despite the planning commission’s crucial role in India’s transformation from a battered country during the Raj to a sovereign nation with high developmental aspirations, the Planning Commission has been charged with being a soviet-style bureaucratic bureaucracy that impeded economic progress. In 2012, the commission was criticised for spending almost Rs.35 lakhs to renovate two toilets, while just after that the commission itself stated that those who spent more than Rs.27 per day were not poor. Thus, such an incident developed an urge for the dissolution of the commission. Later on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated his desire to disband the Planning Commission in his first Independence Day speech in 2014. It has now been superseded by the NITI Aayog, a new organisation.

National Development Council 

On August 6, 1952, the National Development Council was established. The council’s objective was to offer strength and mobilise the nation’s effort and resources in support of the Plan to promote shared economic policies in all critical fields and to ensure that the rapid development of all parts of the country was balanced.

The Objectives of the National Development Council

The national development council was formed with the following goals in mind:

  1. To offer strength and mobilise the nation’s energies and resources to support the strategy.
  2. To promote common economic policy in all major areas.
  3. To ensure that all sections of the country continue to develop in a balanced and consistent manner.
  4. To provide social services to the citizens of the country, such as education, medical care, and social services.
  5. To raise the living standards of the country’s citizens.
  6. To increase per capita income.

The functions of the National Development Council

  1. The council’s role is to guide the guidelines for preparing the National Plan, which includes a resource assessment.
  2. The National Plan, as prepared by the Planning Commission, will be evaluated.
  3. Produce an assessment that is required for the plan’s implementation and make recommendations for ways to improve it.
  4. To assess significant issues of social and economic policy that have an impact on national development.
  5. Periodically inspect the Plan’s operation and recommend measures necessary to achieve the National Plan’s goals and objectives.
  6. To make recommendations for methods to fulfil the National Plan’s goals and objectives.

Conclusion

The Indian government established the planning commission. The Planning Commission’s work is linked to the economic and social responsibilities assigned to the Indian government by the Indian Constitution’s directive principles. The chairman, deputy chairman, and members make up the planning commission. On August 6, 1952, the National Development Council was established. The council’s mission was to offer strength and mobilise the nation’s effort and resources to support the Plan.