JBH22
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"Times have changed since the Planning Commission was created," Modi said on Friday, in a speech to mark India's liberation from British colonial rule. A new institution would be set up "in a short span of time", added the 63-year-old leader, who swept to power in a general election in May.
Narendra Modi scraps Planning Commission, vows to fix broken govt - The Times of IndiaIt was Nehru, a socialist who admired Josef Stalin's drive to industrialize the Soviet Union, who in 1950 set up — and chaired — the Planning Commission to map out a development path for India's agrarian economy.
The collapse of Soviet communism in 1991 killed off Gosplan — as that country's state planning committee was known. Yet its Indian counterpart survived the ensuing economic shock and cautious market reforms that followed.
'Parking lot' for cronies
Modi never had a high opinion of the Planning Commission — as leader of the industrial powerhouse of Gujarat, he stunned the panel last year by turning up at a meeting with a video that accused it of high-handedness and hobbling the states with one-size-fits-all policies.
This June, a government-backed report suggested replacing the Planning Commission with a thinktank more in line with a US-style council of economic advisors.
"Since the Planning Commission has defied attempts to reform it to bring it in line with the needs of a modern economy and the trend of empowering the states, it is proposed that the Planning Commission be abolished," the report said.
A relic of the socialist past. India under Namo to make aggressive capitalist policies