Developing a role for planning in a reforming economy requires vision. To say that there is no vision, other than vague talk about a level-playing field and swadeshi, may seem harsh. Butthere is a harsher reality facing the government. Industrial growth is premised on rising annual private corporate investment as a proportion of GDP. But this proportion has remained stuck around 4 per cent, instead of rising to 8 per cent of GDP, projected by the Ninth Plan. Compartmentalised thinking by different ministries (finance, industry, commerce, agriculture) cannot give a filip to expectations. The Planning Commission, on its part, cannot go back to gap-filling. Investment shortfalls in the private corporate sector cannot be made good by public investment (except at the margin) because the fisc is overstretched. More to the point will be a Miti-like approach, where the commission can point to opportunities and risks and work out supporting policy measures to capture the export multiplier.

As of now, however, the government has not laid bare its thinking on planning - private industrial coordination. A committee of bureaucrats has been identifying the areas in which the commission is to be given asay. The principal problem seems to be centre-state financial relations, in an arrangement where regional parties have come to power in a number of states; and no all-India party holds sway at the centre and the states. So, the commission will be charged with overseeing the devolution of funds from the centre to the states and tracking social-sector spending. This will be a good pragmatic start. But the vision that will inform planning in a reforming economy is far from clear.