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Planning commission and national development council

Planning commission

The Planning Commission was an institution in the Government of India, which formulated India’s Five-Year Plans, among other functions.

Background

Rudimentary economic planning, deriving from the sovereign authority of the state, was first initiated in India in 1938 by Congress President and Indian National Army supreme leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who had been persuaded by Meghnad Saha to set up a National Planning Committee. M. Visvesvaraya had been elected head of the Planning Committee. Meghnad Saha approached the great engineer and requested him to step down. He argued that planning needed a reciprocity between science and politics. M. Visvesvaraya generously agreed and Jawaharlal Nehru was made head of the National Planning Committee.The so-called “British Raj” also formally established a planning board that functioned from 1944 to 1946. Industrialists and economists independently formulated at least three development plans in 2012. Some scholars have argued that the introduction of planning as an instrument was intended to transcend the ideological divisions between Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru. Other scholars have argued that the Planning Commission, as a central agency in the context of plural democracy in India, needs to carry out more functions than rudimentary economic planning.

After India achieved Independence, a formal model of planning was adopted, and accordingly the Planning Commission, reporting directly to the Prime Minister of India, was established on 15 March 1950, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as the Chairman. Authority for creation of the Planning Commission was not derived from the Constitution of India or statute; it is an arm of the Central Government of India.

Composition of commission

The composition of the Commission underwent considerable changes since its initiation. With the Prime Minister as the ex officio Chairman, the committee had a nominated Deputy Chairman, with the rank of a full Cabinet Minister. Cabinet Ministers with certain important portfolios acted as ex officio members of the Commission, while the full-time members were experts in various fields like economics, industry, science and general administration. Ex officio members of the Commission included the Finance Minister, Agriculture Minister, Home Minister, Health Minister, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister, Information Technology Minister, Law Minister, Human Resource Development Minister and Minister of State for Planning.

The Commission worked through its various divisions, of which there were two kinds:

General Planning Divisions
Programme Administration Divisions

Functions

To make an assessment of the material, capital and human resources of the country, including technical personal, and investigate the possibilities of augmenting those are related resources which are found to be deficient in relation to the nation’s requirement.
To formulate a plan for the most effective and balanced utilisation of country’s resources.
To define the stages, on the basis of priority, in which the plan should be carried out and propose the allocation of resources for the due completion of each stage.
To indicate the factors that tend to retard economic development.
To determine the conditions which need to be established for the successful execution of the plan within the incumbent socio-political situation of the country.
To determine the nature of the machinery required for securing the successful implementation of each stage of the plan in all its aspects.
To appraise from time to time the progress achieved in the execution of each stage of the plan and also recommend the adjustments of policy and measures which are deemed important vis-a-vis a successful implementation of the plan.
To make necessary recommendations from time to time regarding those things which are deemed necessary for facilitating the execution of these functions. Such recommendations can be related to the prevailing economic conditions, current policies, measures or development programmes. They can even be given out in response to some specific problems referred to the commission by the central or the state governments.

In his first Independence Day speech in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his intention to dissolve the Planning Commission. It has since been replaced by a new institution named NITI Aayog.

National development council

The National Development Council (NDC) or the Rashtriya Vikas Parishad is the apex body for decision making and deliberations on development matters in India, presided over by the Prime Minister. It was set up on 6 August 1952 to strengthen and mobilize the effort and resources of the nation in support of the Plan, to promote common economic policies in all vital spheres, and to ensure the balanced and rapid development of all parts of the country. The Council comprises the Prime Minister, the Union Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers of all States or their substitutes, representatives of the Union Territories and the members of the NITI Aayog. It is an extra-constitutional and non-statutory body.

Objectives

To secure cooperation of the states in the execution of the plan.
To strengthen and mobilize the effort and resources of the nation in support of the Plan.
To promote common economic policies in all vital spheres.
To ensure the balanced and rapid development of all parts of the country.

Functions

To prescribe guidelines for the formulation of the National Plan, including the assessment of resources for the Plan.
To consider the National Plan as formulated by the NITI Aayog.
To make an assessment of the resources that are required for implementing the Plan and to suggest measures for augmenting them.
To consider important questions of social and economic policy affecting national development; and to review the working of the Plan from time to time.
To recommend such measures as are necessary for achieving the aims and targets set out in the National Plan.
To recommend measures for achievement of the aims and targets set out in the national Plan.

Railway,Roades And Ports of India

Impact on The Indian economy

The Indian Railways contributes to India’s economic development, accounting for about one per cent of the GNP and the backbone of freight needs of the core sector. It accounts for six per cent of the total employment in the organised sector directly and an additional 2.5 per cent indirectly through its dependent organisations.

Road transport is the second important mode of transport in India. It covers every corner of the country which the railway transport even could not cover. Road transport provides the basic infrastructural facilities to both the agricultural and industrial sector of the country.

Some of the important socio- economic benefits of ports are:

Fuels economic development – They are important links of hinterlands to points overseas. They facilitate movement of goods to and from hinterland. They increase international trade ( both exports and import).

Development of cities – Most of the world’s major cities are port cities. Ports spur the economic activities around them like banking, finance, Insurance, logistic etc.

Increase in Employment –Ports increase employment both directly and indirectly. Direct employment refers to employment in port related activities. Indirect employment increases due to increased industrialization and increase in other services like banking and insurance.

Relatively Environment friendly –When compared to other transportation systems, railway transportation requires twice as much energy consumption, while road transportation requires ten times as much as sea conveyance.

Increase world Economic Integration –Globalization has been partially successful due to cheap transportation facilitated by ports.

Development of Infrastructure – Increase the economic activity between hinterland and ports lead to development of infrastructure including railways, roads & inland waterways.

Indian Railway

Introduction

Indian Railways is one of the world’s largest railway network consists of freight, passengers, tourist, Suburban rail systems, toy train and luxury trains. IR has 4,337 operating railway stations,operates on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones and Locomotives are consist of electric and diesel locomotives.

Project Planning and Implementation
Indian Railways entered the Billion Club in freight loading in 2012-13 by achieving 1,008 million tonnes of originating loading. The loading target fixed for 2014-15 is 1,105 million tonnes which is 4.9% higher than the achievement of 2013-14. The XIIth Plan projections of freight loading in the terminal year of the Plan (2016-17) are 1,405 million tonnes.
Indian Railways carried 8,425.6 million passengers in 2013-14 which is about 1,430 million higher than the population of the world put together. The annual target for passenger traffic in 2014-15 is 8,645 million, which is 2.6% higher than in 2013-14. The XIIth Plan target is 11,710 million passengers in the terminal year of the Plan.

The Challenges

As the growth in the economy picks up in the years to come, IR will have a challenging task ahead because of line and terminal capacity constraints in transporting the incremental traffic. Therefore, there is need for significant investment in the network, especially the HDN routes and its feeder and other important routes

2.There is a large shelf of pending projects which is estimated at Rs. 4,91,510 crore on the basis of originally estimated costs Of these, fund requirement for the prioritized works such as doubling, new lines, gauge conversion, traffic facilities, signal & telecom works, workshops and electrification is estimated at Rs 2,08,054 crore

Budget 2017

A Rail safety fund with a corpus of Rs 100,000 crore will be created over a period of 5 years
2. The service charge on rail tickets booked through IRCTC will be withdrawn.

3. As many as 500 rail stations will be made differently abled-friendly by providing lifts and escalators.

4. Steps will be taken to launch dedicated trains for pilgrimage and tourism

5. A new metro rail policy will be announced+. This is expected to open up new jobs for the youth

6. At least 25 train stations are expected to be awarded during 2017-18

7. By 2019, all coaches of the Indian railwayswill be fitted with bio-toilets

Railways will integrate end to end transport solutions for selected commodities through partnerships

Unmanned railway level crossings to be eliminated by 2020

A 22% rise in the Railway Budget was announced

Structure of IR’s finances:

The structure of IR’s finances is such that they are divided into revenue and capital expenditures.While revenue expenditure takes care of the day to day and operational working expenses, inclusive of debt servicing and dividend payment, capital expenditures take care of IR’s investments inclusive of repair and renewals. There are three streams that comprise capital expenditure; these are Gross Budgetary Support from the Ministry of Finance, internal generation of resources and leasing from IRFC.

Indian Roads

Introduction

India has the second largest road network across the world at 4.7 million km. This road network transports more than 60 per cent of all goods in the country and 85 per cent of India’s total passenger traffic. Road transportation has gradually increased over the years with the improvement in connectivity between cities, towns and villages in the country.

Key Investments/Developments

1.The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) has been awarded a contract to build five all-weather access tunnels worth Rs 23,000 crore (US$ 3.57 billion) in Jammu and Kashmir by 2024.

2.Abertis Infraestructuras SA, a Spanish infrastructure firm, has agreed to buy two toll road assets in operation in South India from Macquarie Group for Rs 1,000 crore(US$ 150 million) to scale up its presence in India

Ports of India

Introduction

The nine coastal Indian states Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal are home to all major and minor ports of India. The long coastline of India forms one of the biggest piece of land into a body of water,These twelve major Indian Ports are handle a large volume of cargo traffic and container traffic. There are total 13 major sea ports of India,out of 12 are government and one, Ennore port of Chennai is the corporate one. Ennore Port is one of the major port of India located at Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu state along with Kakinada Port and private Krishnapatnam Port and Mundra Port

Key Policy Development

1:No approval required for foreign equity up to 51 per cent in projects providing supporting

services to water transport

2:Automatic approval of foreign equity up to 100 per cent in construction and maintenance of ports and harbours. However, the proposal needs to be referred to FIPB for investments exceeding Rs 15 billion.

3: Open tenders to be invited for private sector participation on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis

4: Permission granted for formation of joint ventures between Major Ports and foreign ports, Major Ports and Non-Major Ports, and Major Ports and companies

Challenges:

Geograhical: Heavy silting as seen in riverine ports like Haldia.
Technological: Inadequate dredging capacities. Poor mechanization and manual handling of critical processes Eg in Paradip port
Infrastructural: Congestion of roads connecting the port leading to time delays as seen in JLN port Underutilization of physical infrastructure of the ports Eg in Cochin port.
Policy and regulatory issues: Currently the ports operate on “Trust Model” where government is the owner and operator of the port. Non-uniform tariff structure (TAMP) which makes some ports uncompetitive High turnaround time is as much as 3-4 days compared to average time of 6-7hrs in other developed ports because of cumbersome documentation and clearance.