Is Modi's Advisory Panel To Replace Planning Commission?

BANGALORE: Planning commission is likely to be replaced by the special team of handpicked members that will draw the power from Narendra Modi. Former union minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to lead as an executive with free market economists Arvind Panagariya and Bibek Debroy as two more likely members.

It will be formally chaired by the prime minister and the announcement can come very soon, reports Deepshikha Sikarwar and Vinay Pandey of The Economic Times.

The two other members of this advisory body are expected to be an academician from science and technology, and a social science expert familiar with wider Sangh Parivar thinking. However the advisory body is yet to be named and the names of science and social science experts are in the process of being finalized.

According to ET one senior official said, “while most thinking on the new panel's formation is over, two questions being addressed now are: first, the name of the think tank and, second, whether to accommodate at least partially a counterview on the size of the panel. A name distinct from China's Development and Reforms Commission is being sought but hasn't been decided as yet.”

There has been a view that a larger think tank may be able to accommodate representational political issues such caste and states. However, a smaller, nimbler panel is the more likely option, because it will be distinct from the now-abolished eight-member Planning Commission.

Though broad guidelines have been decided, the terms of reference of the new body haven't been fixed yet.

According to an official, “the PM has a very clear role for the new body as he has always been a Planning Commission skeptic. Back in early 2013, as the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi had made a presentation to the Planning Commission pointing out its shortcomings and the role it should play,”

The new panel is expected to be a strategic advisor, doing big thinking and thinking for the future. It will also be responsible for preparing a blueprint of PM's Independence Day speech.