The assessment sent to the Prime Minister recommended that a new think-tank be set up with experts of domain knowledge to replace the plan body.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into allegations of Pakistan links of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's British wife Elizabeth Colburn. Sarma alleged that Colburn had visited Pakistan after her marriage and that there are apprehensions of ISI infiltration into the Chief Minister's Office when Gogoi's father, the late Tarun Gogoi, was the chief minister. Sarma also shared screenshots of social media posts by Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an advisor of the Pakistan Planning Commission and a former colleague of Colburn, claiming that the relationship between the Gogois and Sheikh appeared to be "deeply rooted." Sarma's allegations have been rejected by the Congress as "laughable and entertaining."
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has accused Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi of raising questions on sensitive defence matters in Parliament after his marriage to a British citizen. Sarma alleged that Gogoi's wife, Elizabeth Colburn, has links with the Pakistani establishment, including working for an organisation allegedly a front for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Gogoi has rejected the allegations as "baseless" and said the BJP is trying to divert attention from its own failures.
The 64-year-old Planning Commission, a vestige of the socialist era, will soon become history.
The Planning Commission has not been central to the policy making process since the mid-1960s, says Nitin Desai.
The Assam Cabinet on Sunday had decided not to register any case against the Congress MP or his British spouse, who the BJP has accused of having ISI links, but instructed the DGP to file an FIR against Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh.
Caught in the middle of a maelstrom of controversies, the Planning Commission has been accused of being disconnected from ground realities. Its 12th Plan hopes to fix that.
All members of the Planning Commission have submitted their resignations to the Prime Minister's Office paying the way for reconstitution of the institution.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President V M Sudheeran on Monday flayed the Narendra Modi government's move to scrap Planning Commission and bring in an alternative body in its place.
Eminent economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia was on Wednesday appointed deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.
The curtains have come down on the organisation that, for 64 years, was responsible for the country's planned development.
Identifying major thrust areas for growth of telecom sector, Planning Commission has stressed on the need to upgrade and modernise telecommunication technology being used by the country's defence, police and para military forces.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently extended a Rs 8,000-crore (Rs 80 billion) central support for building roads in Jammu & Kashmir, Union Cabinet's approval for the big-ticket announcement came in barely 48 hours.
The Planning Commission on Thursday unveiled a Vision 2020 document envisaging 100 per cent literacy, no unemployment and poverty and quadrupling the per capita income of the country by 2020 saying.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
Sagoo was the lone candidate left in fray after incumbent senior vice president Anju Bobby George opted out of the race for the position.
The Commission more or less speaks for the government in power and nothing else.
Prodded by Prime Minister, the Planning Commission is likely to come out with a target of 10 per cent average annual growth in the 12th Five Year Plan.
'The critical event signalling a new era for India was Dr Singh's 1991 Budget in which he quoted Victor Hugo to say that no power on earth could stop an idea whose time has come,' recalls T N Ninan.
Top finance ministry officials and members of Planning Commission on Friday gave a thumbs up to the Union Budget 2003-2004 saying Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had laid out a roadmap for greater flow of investment and industrial growth.
'I am optimistic about the Budget because of the fiscal discipline the government has committed to.'
The Plan Panel was set up by a simple government resolution in March 1950 had withstood many political and economic upheavals.
Though the Planning Commission favours imposition of a direct tax on Special Economic Zones (SEZs), it does not agree with the contention that these tax-free industrial enclaves are leading to revenue loss.
The quiet corridors of the Planning Commission were again agog with activity following talk that the central government would soon announce the former's much-awaited reconstitution.
He drew the roadmap of India's economic reform, unshackled it from the licence raj and pulled it back from the brink when even its gold reserve was pledged.
'I had to persuade him. I think he was a sceptic to begin with, but later on he was convinced that what we were doing was the right thing to do, that there was no other way out.'
Planning Commission director N K Singh expressed confidence that the country would see over 7% growth in gross domestic product during the current financial year, but said that maintaining the growth rate would be a difficult task.
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The CPI(M) on Thursday slammed the Planning Commission estimates on poverty levels in the country, saying these made "a mockery of life and death struggles" of the people, amidst continuous rise in prices and "massive" slashing of subsidies for the poor.
Set up by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Planning Commission brought 12 five-year plans and six annual plans involving fund outlays of over Rs 200 lakh crore in its nearly 65-year-history.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday took potshots at the rival Shiv Sena over its minister not finding a place in the reconstituted NITI Aayog.
'We are going to need more technical people in government.' 'You can't expect a generalist to understand the complicated world of financial engineering.' 'I regret to say that most of our politicians have no competence to deal with these things. Nor is there a willingness to learn.'
Arun Maira who worked for 25 years with the Tata Group, remembers his early years with Ratan Tata.
Chief ministers of three Congress-ruled states -- Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana's Revanth Reddy -- have announced they will not attend the NITI Aayog meeting over alleged bias against their states in the Union Budget.
'It is notable how humble he was and didn't want anything different just because he was a Tata.'
Banerjee said her microphone was stopped after five minutes, while other chief ministers were allowed to speak for longer durations.
Dr T V Somanathan is the first finance secretary to be appointed Cabinet secretary since 1985. His appointment at this juncture seems to carry much meaning for the forthcoming trajectory of reforms and restructuring of India's steel frame.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of making India a high-income economy by 2047 is unlikely to be achieved, but the country should become an upper middle-income nation by then, Financial Times chief economics commentator Martin Wolf said on Friday. Wolf further said that India would also become a superpower by 2047. "India wishes to become a high-income country by 2047.
Creating many more half-decent jobs for the 10 million plus new entrants to the labour force each year must surely constitute the primary development challenge for India today.
'The government should come back as a job creator as it did in the 1960s and the 1970s.'
