Without doubt, India needs to improve all round performance of its economy and faster too. For more inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth. And faster improvement in public services and human development indicators. Results must be improved on the ground, in the states, districts, and cities. Since the task is huge and resources are limited, better planning would help. The question is what role a central planning body can play and should play in a federal set-up where there is a constitutional, as well as practical necessity to devolve more power downwards and outwards. A central planning body, especially if it is not constitutionally empowered to do so, cannot derive its power from an ability to allocate funds. It must become an ‘essay in persuasion, not an allocator of funds’, in the words of Dr. Manmohan Singh who had called for a reform of India’s Planning Commission to make it fit for 21st century conditions.
The fundamental reforms necessary in the economy must be implemented coherently over many years, beyond the 5-year terms of democratically elected governments. Long term planning and implementation is necessary. How can this be ensured if the planning body is appointed by elected governments and does not have a mandate beyond them? Therefore, how do planners prepare and present a coherent and compelling set of ideas of a national plan, which have broad support from citizens, so that it is an essay in persuasion of various governments at the center and in the states? And an essay in persuasion of non-governmental actors too to align their actions with national priorities.
The models that planners use, explicitly or implicitly, to prepare national plans must be broadened. The limitations of economists’ models in predicting even the course of economies has been exposed. Moreover, economists’ models leave out too many ‘externalities’ to accurately represent the realities of complex socio-environmental-economic systems. 21st century planners must be systems reformers, in the words of Dr. Manmohan Singh again, so that they can guide changes in complex systems to improve the well-being of citizens, not just increase GDP. A national planning process must incorporate inter-disciplinary capabilities, and planners must adopt new systems models which are not limited to economic parameters.
Therefore, reforms of national planning must address three questions:
- What are the competencies a central planning body must have to become an essay in persuasion, in a democratic and federal set-up, without powers to allocate funds?
- What are the new approaches of systems thinking and systems reforms it must learn?
- Are there any constitutional changes that are essential to strengthen the role of a national planning body as an essay in persuasion and systems reformer?