Planning Commission

The Fifteenth Finance Commission recommendations on local bodies, particularly those relating to urban local bodies, are a dampener. The recommendations lead to an anomalous situation of a least urbanised state getting higher per capita urban grants. Similarly, the segmentation of urban grants into too many components and very rigid conditions leaves a big question mark on grants utilisation.

In all federal structures, the composing units are not self-sufficient financially. But, in India, the economic dependence of states on the centre is rather high because of widespread disparities in their levels of economic development. The federal transfers to the states through the Finance Commission, Planning Commission and centrally-sponsored schemes are investigated. The role of the union government in equitable direct investment, subsidy, and private investment policy for unbiased regional development is also underlined . The data proves that although the Finance Commission’s transfers are progressive, the share of devolution for low-income states is gradually decreasing. Unfortunately, all other transfers and efforts by the centre are regressive to address the regional inequality issues.

The dissolution of the Planning Commission and expiry of the Twelfth Plan has imperilled the futures of the centres for Women's Studies, and Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy across public universities in India. These centres were borne out of struggles for inclusion and continue to operate at the margins of the academic set-up. A critical appraisal of Women's Studies has been undertaken here to locate its relevance in contemporary times.

The architecture, engineering and management aspects of the new institution, NITI Aayog, will have to be crafted carefully, if it is to serve as an institution to impart dynamism to the developmental process in a harmonious manner. Its effectiveness will depend on how it charts out a course for itself. An important question is whether the Aayog will have influence when it does not have the power to give grants and does not have the powers to make plan allocations to different ministries and departments.

Some issues for the consideration of the Twelfth Finance Commission in regard to its task of making recommendations to augment the Consolidated Fund of the states in order to supplement the resources of panchayats and municipalities.