Last Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog) — surely an office with the strangest name — and instructed it to prepare a vision document for the country’s “transformation” over the next 15 years, a vision that would set the tone for the country for all of the century. Five-year plans will be buried at the end of the 12th Plan. Does this sound plain impractical, or surreal?
The one “transformational” idea that has been repeated by experts close to the government since Mr Modi took the reins is to give primacy to the market-only approach, regardless of the country’s socio-economic circumstances and the vast pool of poverty that exists. Well, there is nothing new about this idea, let alone anything “transformational”. The market’s strong points and weaknesses have been discussed for over a century, as has been the observed phenomenon of “market failures”.
The PM himself pointed fingers at the last seven decades of our development experience (in the time of the Planning Commission, though the denunciation was implied, not overtly stated) and said in this period policy-makers had lamented the country’s “constraints”, instead of playing to its strengths. He urged today’s policy-makers to abandon “incrementalism” and go for transformational leaps. Does any of this hide deep inner meanings? It is high time Parliament debated this. The first question should be: What has Niti Aayog done since its creation on January 1, 2015, and what is its mandate?
