Nature Remembers You...

Nature Remembers You...
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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Planning Commission gone to dustbin, now 'Niti Ayog' : India reduced to blah blah development

The government must set the priority on the basic essence of Indian planning system. The proposed renaming of planning commission, has no meaning unless there is functional change. Its not clear what the government wants, just throwing away the organisation and function is not the intention. May be blindly following the US way of doing of the things means we are entering into capitalist based economic system. But this would always increase fight between the states, and center should have minimum role in planning of state. Are states prepared to open planning and policy making. Policy making at the national level had been centres task and planning commission did many good things, just before rejected due to dislike of developed state as well as BJP ruled states. The axis of development would change post congress era but whether it should go away from constitutional commitments. If not, planning commission is best option available with little reform to suit the current macro requirements. Its sad that intellectuals and politicians who had taken big and bold steps are silent on serious basis of Indian economic and development system. This also shows serious lapse on our commitment to the world bodies. Is that so simple to change the name ' Niti Ayog' i.e. Policy commission, what about five year plan, we are getting away from plan regime means we do not now talk of poverty, inequality, inclusion and employment, but talk more of export-import, national security, industries, SEZ and urbanization. The national macro priorities have flipped now till they receive some serious thoughts from planning from below.

The policy making is loose till there is some essence in planning. Many have in past talked about planning from below, which mean decentralization of decisions. India needs to rethink on the development agenda at par with the directions from the UNDP or ADB or WTO or UNFCC in order to follow the agenda of world on one hand and look for the solutions for the problems at hand. The land and agricultural policies connected with the livelihood of the masses cannot be resolved by making policy (we already have plenty). The centre needs to redistribute the funds in order to reduce the inequality amongst the states and its people. The resources in the country is not equally distributed thus making the role of centre very important to address the regional and sector based issues.

The past commission did not pay much attention to the regional needs including those of states and districts, the legislative power given to the local bodies including district authorities also needs to be enhanced. The district development plans must now be given top priority while taking for the developments. Most of the problem facing the country are felt locally and can be resolved by having the integrated development plans. The resource exploitation has become serious threat to the eco-systems, fueling the migrations trends. The justifiable development must be achieved by going towards the people centeric approach in planning.

Where is direction to the nation by changing these names, the frequency of neglect of the primary and secondary sector is serious. While growth may happen from the FDI investments but this would also destroy the synergies between the people and state. The manufacturing capacities of the Indian people and markets are understated and killed by systematic intrusion by the foreigners in our economic space. It seems we would be back to the imperialism of economic character with more loose strings now going into the MNC giants. The vested interest have taken now control of the economic systems to retain the benefits of economic growth to few and planning to leave the rest of India on its own.

Instead of reviving the public systems if governments in power in centre and state chooses to ignore them, there is going to be total chaos in social order which might be starting from below. The time might be appropritate for the citizens and working class to understand that their strengths are misunderstood in present context. India, must be awake to the changes and support where ever  these are appropriate but also be strong enough to resist the change which can hamper their economic and social prospects. 

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