No more jagirs

That the Planning Commission needs to update its ability to serve as a resource for government policy-making is something most people agree on. That will,certainly,require it to expand its own resources,allowing it to access and commission the best in outside research,as well as ramp up in-house ability.

It is important,however,that we take into account the need to keep the reform going; the boost the commission receives should outlast individuals. Its this test that,unfortunately,the latest proposal from within the Planning Commission fails. It is proposed that discretionary funding of up to Rs 1 crore a year be allowed to the commissions members,allowing them to personally engage individuals,firms or institutions to assist them in research in areas that they feel are important to the planning process. This money is unlikely to be subject to gross misuse. And yet the proposal falls into the trap that has bedevilled too many of the Indian states attempts to expand the scope of research: the inability to craft institutional structures that are effective beyond the tenure of a few particularly motivated or visionary individuals. The Planning Commission goes on,apparently,for ever,even as its members come and go. And while its members deserve the best resources possible as they work,there need to be structures that direct and target what that work is,as well as ensuring its benefits are not lost even after the individual who has commissioned it leaves. Otherwise,we will get a Planning Commission that produces little beyond ephemeral reports written by outside consultants on matters of interest to one commission member,and not the body of area experts and constantly growing in-house expertise we require.

India suffers from too many experts and too few places to put them. We need incubators of original thought,of careful analysis,urgently. But the really good think-tanks are never those places which rely constantly on individual discretion. Nor are they merely staging points to fund external research,or for a de-committed class of roving consultants. This proposal is a step in the wrong direction for the Planning Commission.