New Delhi: India’s Planning Commission will be renamed “Niti Ayog” as part of a plan to restructure the institution, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech.
The name, replacing “Yojana (planning)” with “Niti (policy)” will be announced in an amended resolution for the new plan body, which, sources say, will have up to five full-time members and four union ministers.
The permanent members are expected to be experts drawn from various fields.
Earlier this month, PM Modi held discussions with chief ministers on replacing the Soviet-style body with a ‘Team India’ concept that would give states a greater role in developing Asia’s third largest economy.
The restructured plan panel could be a combination of three or four divisions.
In his Independence Day speech in August, PM Modi had indicated that the 64-year-old Commission had lost its relevance. Later, he tweeted asking for public feedback on what shape the institution should take.
It was India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a socialist who admired Joseph Stalin’s drive to industrialize the Soviet Union, who in 1950 set up – and chaired – the Planning Commission to map out a development path for India’s agrarian economy.
A government-backed report suggested replacing the Planning Commission with a think tank more in line with a US-style Council of Economic Advisors.
The opposition Congress has criticised the plan, calling it “shortsighted and dangerous”.
