The NITI Aayog — the Central Think Tank — will assist each state in establishing comparable committees to replace existing planning boards for faster and more inclusive economic growth, in sync with the objective of creating a developed nation by 2047.
The move recognises that, with the exception of sectors such as defence, railways, and highways, national GDP growth is an aggregation of state growth rates. The state government is largely responsible for health, education, and skill development. The NITI Aayog emphasises the importance of state governments in enhancing ease of doing business, land reforms, infrastructure development, credit flows, and urbanisation, all of which are crucial for long-term economic growth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi set an ambitious goal of making India a developed nation by 2047 in his Independence Day speech last month. On September 6, the NITI Aayog convened a conference of state planning secretaries to kick off the “state assistance mission.” According to insiders, the think-tank, which will likely provide assistance to states and include professionals from IIMs and IITs, has received good replies from states.
Initially, it intends to establish such bodies in 8-10 states before expanding to all states by March 2023. Four states — Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Assam — have already began work in this area, with Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat set to follow suit soon, according to sources.
The Modi government replaced the 65-year-old Planning Commission with the NITI Aayog in January 2015, primarily as a think-tank for establishing a national strategy on development. Since then, the Centre has delegated plan fund allocation authority to the Finance Ministry.
Most states, however, have done nothing to revitalise their planning departments/boards, which previously engaged with the Planning Commission and created parallel state five-year plans with the Centre. “With large workforce, most states’ planning offices are essentially defunct and have no idea what work they will undertake,” a senior official said.
“NITI Aayog has devised a strategy to assist in the formation of teams that would study the existing structure of state planning boards and conceptualise the State Institution for Transformation (SIT) over the next 4-6 months.”
SITs will facilitate lateral entry of experts to do high-quality analytical work and policy recommendations. A framework for how it will help states in policy formation, monitor and evaluate government policies and programmes, and offer better technology or models for scheme delivery will be developed, in addition to reorienting state planning boards as SITs.
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