Consultations held on proposed replacement for Planning Commission

Consultative meetings were held today relating to the proposed new design and structure for the Planning Commission.

These were part of consultations after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, from the ramparts of Red Fort, on the 15th of this month, had said "....We will replace Planning Commission with a new institution having a new design and structure... a new faith towards forging a new direction to lead the country based on creative thinking, Public Private Partnership, optimum utilization of resources, utilization of youth power to the nation, to promote the aspiration of State Governments seeking development, to empower the State Governments and to empower the federal structure."

Subsequently, the Prime Minister had invited ideas from people on what shape the new institution to replace the Planning Commission can take. A special open forum was created on the website mygov.nic.in for inviting suggestions on the new institution.

"We envision the proposed Institution as one that caters to the aspirations of 21st century India and strengthens participation of the States.... Let the ideas flow," Prime Minister Modi had said as the above Open Forum was created on mygov.nic.in, on last Tuesday.

Various experts were invited for the consultations held at the Planning Commission today.

Among those who participated in today's meetings were Yashwant Sinha, Dr. Bimal Jalan, Dr. Saumitra Chaudhury, Dr. Vijay Kelkar, M.J. Akbar, Dr. Y.K. Alagh, Dr. Nitin Desai, Dr. Shankar N. Acharya, T.N. Ninan, Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Dr. Shekar Shah, Dr. Pronab Sen, Dr. T.C.A. Srinivasa Raghavan, Dr. Rajat Kathuria, Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Dr. Surjit Bhalla and Sumit Bose.