Question

What was the role of the Planning Commission?

Answer 1

Hint: The Planning Commission of India was set up on 15 March 1950 by the Government of India. The ex-officio members included the Cabinet ministers and various experts from economics, science, politics.

Complete answer: In 1938, the National Planning Committee was formed with Nehru as its Chairman. The Bombay Plan, People's Plan, Gandhian Plan and Sarvodaya Plan were brought on the table and finally, the Soviet Union’s five-year plan model was adopted for the mixed economy (public + private sector).
The ex-officio chairman of the commission used to be the Prime Minister; Jawaharlal Nehru was the first chairman of the Planning Commission.
The functions of the Planning Commission included formulating the five-year plans, assessing and utilizing the resources to their maximum potential, effective implementation of the plans and executing the plans as per the priority. This was to augment the standard of living of the citizens, to regulate the available resources efficiently, increase the productivity and generate employment. It managed to showcase its efficiency by recommending development and anti-poverty programmes. The economic planning of India and recommendations to the government was the main role of the commission. There were 12 five year plans implemented; however, before the completion of the 12th five-year plan, the Planning Commission was dissolved.
The National Institution for Transforming India was set up on 1 January 2015 as a successor of the Planning Commission. NITI Ayog follows the ‘Think Tank’ policy serving the directional and policy inputs.

Note: The Planning Commission of India was dissolved to make NITI Ayog which focuses on sustainable plans that involve innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, research on issues like the environment, space etc.