Planning Commission
Topic: Regional Planning and Sustainable Development in India · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 6 "Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context"
Meaning
The Planning Commission was the body that ran India's planned development. A Union Cabinet resolution set it up in March 1950, with the Prime Minister as its chairman. It made the Five Year Plans and shared out plan funds to the Centre and the states. It also changed how India dealt with backward places and people. It brought in target area and target group approaches in the Fourth and Fifth Plans, special area programmes in the Eighth Plan, and agro-climatic regional planning from 1988. NITI Aayog replaced it on 1 January 2015.
Example
After about 15 years of planning, the gaps between regions were growing. So the Planning Commission started programmes for backward areas. In 1967 it named 67 drought-prone districts for the Drought Prone Area Programme.
Don't confuse with
- NITI Aayog: it is a policy think tank, which means a body that gives advice. It brings states into policy-making (cooperative federalism). Unlike the Planning Commission, it does not allocate plan funds.