Economic Planning, NITI Aayog and the Sustainable Development Goals

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Main Examination, General Studies III:

• Economic planning in India, objectives and achievements. Role of NITI Aayog, Pursuit of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's).

The line asks for three things: the story of planning in India with what it set out to do and what it achieved, the role of NITI Aayog that replaced the Planning Commission, and India's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Topics in detail

Ideas of planning

• Meaning of economic planning; imperative, indicative and perspective planning
• Centralised and decentralised planning; planning by direction and planning by inducement
• Why newly independent India chose planning: low income, low savings, a weak industrial base and the experience of colonial rule
• Pre-independence plans: the National Planning Committee of the Congress (1938, chaired by Jawaharlal Nehru), the Bombay Plan (1944), the Gandhian Plan and the People's Plan
• Mixed economy and the commanding heights role of the public sector

The Planning Commission and the Five-Year Plans

• Planning Commission set up by a Cabinet resolution in March 1950; the National Development Council (1952)
• First Plan (1951-56): agriculture, irrigation and the Harrod-Domar framework
• Second Plan (1956-61): the Mahalanobis model and heavy industry
• Third Plan (1961-66): self-reliance; shortfalls after the wars of 1962 and 1965 and droughts; the plan holiday (1966-69) of annual plans
• Fourth Plan (1969-74): growth with stability and progressive self-reliance
• Fifth Plan (1974-79): removal of poverty; ended a year early and followed by a rolling plan (1978-80)
• Sixth (1980-85) and Seventh (1985-90) Plans: poverty programmes, food, work and productivity
• Annual plans of 1990-92 and the Eighth Plan (1992-97): indicative planning after the 1991 reforms, human development
• Ninth Plan (1997-2002): growth with social justice and equity
• Tenth Plan (2002-07): monitorable targets; Eleventh Plan (2007-12): faster and more inclusive growth
• Twelfth Plan (2012-17): faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth; the last Five-Year Plan

Objectives and achievements of planning

• Common objectives: growth, modernisation, self-reliance, employment, removal of poverty and of regional and income inequality
• Achievements: an industrial and infrastructure base, food self-sufficiency after the Green Revolution, institutions of higher learning and research, a wider public sector
• Shortfalls: slow growth before 1980, persistent poverty and unemployment, regional imbalance, inefficiency of public enterprises, implementation gaps
• Decentralised planning: District Planning Committees (Article 243ZD), Metropolitan Planning Committees (Article 243ZE), Gram Panchayat Development Plans

NITI Aayog

• National Institution for Transforming India, set up on 1 January 2015 by a Cabinet resolution; an executive, not a constitutional or statutory, body
• Structure: Prime Minister as chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, full-time and part-time members, ex officio Union Ministers, Chief Executive Officer; the Governing Council of Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors; regional councils
• Functions: think tank and policy advice, cooperative federalism, competitive federalism through State rankings, monitoring and evaluation
• Differences from the Planning Commission: no power to allocate funds, bottom-up rather than top-down planning, no Five-Year Plans
• Indices and rankings: SDG India Index, Composite Water Management Index, School Education Quality Index, State Health Index, Export Preparedness Index, India Innovation Index
• Programmes and attached bodies: Aspirational Districts Programme (2018), Atal Innovation Mission, Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office
• Criticism and debate: advisory role, effect on States' finances after the end of plan grants

Sustainable Development Goals

• From the Millennium Development Goals (8 goals, 2000-2015) to the 2030 Agenda adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015
• 17 goals and 169 targets: no poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice and strong institutions; partnerships for the goals
• Principles: universality, leave no one behind, integration of economic, social and environmental aims
• India's machinery: NITI Aayog coordinates; the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation keeps the National Indicator Framework; Voluntary National Reviews at the UN High-Level Political Forum
• Localising the goals: State and district indicator frameworks, links with Union and State schemes
• Problems: financing gap, data gaps, inter-State variation, conflicts between goals (for example growth and emissions)

Overlaps

• General Studies VI: State budgets, planned development and developmental indices of Uttar Pradesh.
• Prelims General Studies Paper I: economic and social development, poverty and inclusion at the objective level.