Forest Matters, No.7-9, February 2015 www.forestmatters.blogspot.in -1- Forestry in the 12 th Plan No tears for the Planning Commission India P.J.Dilip Kumar 1 Keywords: forestry, planning commission, governance, budgets, India Revamping the Planning Commission After the 2014 general elections and the new NDA government assuming power at the centre, one of the first major policy announcements was the winding up of the Planning Commission of India, apparently because the Commission was seen as an outside agency that has taken over too much of the power of budget formulation and allocation of funds that should rightly be under the control of the government. By now, it seems a fait accompli that the Planning Commission of India as we have known it is due to be closed down. At the same time, the government has initiated an alternate body, called the Niti Ayog, which seems to be intended as a policy advisory group (much like the National Advisory Council in the UPA regime?). A spate of articles and papers has appeared in the news media and scholarly journals, debating the pros and cons of the issue, and suggesting the way forward, but there seems to be little clarity on how the functions of the erstwhile Commission will be carried out in the new dispensation. This article discusses aspects and processes of the old Planning Commission, based on the experience of the forest sector, especially in the preparation of the 12 th Five Year Plan document (2012-17) during the recent past, and on what lessons can be drawn that may be helpful for the successor body to maintain both internal consistency and external relevance. Forest Sector in the Twelfth Plan – aspirations and objectives A question arises at the outset, of how a sector-centric analysis of a national plan document could be couched. To just say that the allocation is inadequate will not be very interesting, as any conceivable plan could well leave more unfulfilled clients than satisfied ones. We propose here to examine the 12 th Plan proposals against the plan’s own statement of goals and principles, i.e. analysing it for ‘internal consistency’. It is also proposed to test the plan against the sector’s priorities and objectives, i.e. the plan’s ‘external relevance’, and to draw some general lessons on sectoral planning that may be useful for any successor institution that may be set up. 1 Dr.P.J.Dilip Kumar, Ph.D. in Forest Economics (University of Wales), retired from the Indian Forest Service in November 2012 as the Director General of Forests, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India. He is presently ICSSR Senior Fellow at the Institute for Social & Economic Change (ISEC), Nagarbhavi, Bangalore-560072. His writings are at www.forestmatters.blogspot.in Email pjdilip@gmail.com .