The Planning Commission Renamed ‘NITI Ayog’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
In its new avatar, The Planning Commission has been renamed as ‘NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Ayog ‘. The decision came months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that The Planning Commission will be replaced by a new body.
The decision to rename The Planning Commission as NITI Ayog came nearly after three weeks since Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi held a consulting with chief ministers. In the meeting most of the Chief ministers favored restructuring of the Socialist-era body, however, some Congress Chief Ministers opposed the dissolution of the existing structure.
This year Modi, during his first Independence Day Speech, had announced that the Planning Commission would be replaced by a new body. The new body would aspire to be in sync with the contemporary economic world and which is not based on century-old principles.
On the seventh of December 2015, while addressing the Chief Ministers, he reinvoked former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s comment that the current structure has “no futuristic vision in the post-reform period”. This comment was made by Dr. Manmohan Singh on April 30 last year. Dr. Singh had emphasized the need for an effective structure which would help in strengthening “cooperative federalism” and therefore, in the concept of “Team India”.
The new structure will involve names like the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi – Chairman, some of the cabinet ministers of the new government, full-time domain experts, etc. However, the names are yet to be announced. There are indications of some technocrats and experts in various fields to be involved in the new body NITI Ayog.
