Nobody should be surprised if the Congress-led alliance at the Centre now makes favourable policy overtures to Naveen Patnaik also, like it has done for Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee, in the hope of strengthening its prospects after the next general elections, says AK Bhattacharya
A year ago, India's GDP was expected to grow at 8.2 per cent. Instead it is growing at 5.3 per cent.
This year, however, the quarantine is also being strictly applied to the headquarters of the government's main policy think-tank, the Planning Commission.
PM's new vigour should revive investment - but may not return India to nine per cent growth.
If Kamal Nath launches a broadside, it is because his ministry now can no longer afford to ignore the advice that comes from Yojana Bhavan.
Jadhav has a certain way with the crowds with his earthy Marathi speeches he got unprecedented crowds whenever he held public meetings as the VC and his innovative schemes at Pune University which took academia to the villages have made him a popular figure in Pune.
Can the government implement the big policy changes required for high growth?
State governments are expected to play a more significant role
The Planning Commission has not been central to the policy making process since the mid-1960s, says Nitin Desai.
On Friday, the nameplate of the erstwhile commission on the railings of the Yojana Bhawan was pulled down and replaced with NITI Aayog.
Even if the new body focuses on long-term planning, it is unlikely to do so through five-year Plans.
'A lot will depend on the first Aayog and the power it derives.'
A homoeopathic state of mind pervades our thinking in governance and infrastructure-building. Do it in small, harmless doses, but nothing bitter, sharp, or bloody, says Shekhar Gupta.
The Plan Panel was set up by a simple government resolution in March 1950 had withstood many political and economic upheavals.
The need for co-ordinated policy between Centre and states was likewise foreseen and assigned.
'People on both sides of the Hindutva debate need to read and understand the texts first,' Bibek Debroy, translator of the unabridged Mahabharata, tells Kanika Datta as he gets started on a similar project for the Ramayana.
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