Modi to consult Manmohan over plan panel replacement

With the venerable Planning Commission having been scrapped by the Narendra Modi government, speculation is rife on a replacement body (See: Modi seeks peoples' ideas on new body to replace plan panel).

Reports today iterate that a lean eight-member think-tank may replace the Planning Commission which will include top economists, a social activist and a scientist – apart of course from government representatives.

More importantly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may meet his predecessor Manmohan Singh before a replacement for the plan panel is announced, which according to an NDTV report should be in 15-20 days.

The new think-tank is likely to have a chairman and seven members. Four of these members will be permanent.

The rest of the Planning Commission members will be absorbed into government departments.

The new-look commission has its first task cut out; the government has decided to forward the issues regarding royalty and pricing of minerals, and whether they should be auctioned.

The Prime Minister had announced the end of the Planning Commission in his Independence Day speech (Plan panel to be scrapped, replaced by new body: PM). 

India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru set up and chaired the Planning Commission in 1950 to map out a development path for the country's agrarian economy.