Chapter – 5

Planning
In India
 Topics
 Introduction  NDC vs GC
 Background  Central Planning
 Major Objectives of  The Five Year Plans
Planning
 Twenty Point Programme
 Planning Commission
 MPLADS
 Functions of the Planning
 Multi Level Planning
Commission
 Way to Decentralized Planning
 An Epitaph to the
Planning Commission  The Planning Commission and
The Finance Commission
 National Development
Council  A Critical Evaluation
 Topics
 Inclusive Growth  Programme Evaluation
 Short Term Policy Organisation
 Long Term Policy  Development Monitoring and
 Resource Mobilization Evaluation Office
 Investment Models
 Central Sector Schemes
And Centrally Sponsored
Schemes
 Independent Evaluation
Office
 INDEPENDENT EVALUATION OFFICE
 An Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) was created by the GoI in
February 2014, at an arm’s distance from the government with the
objective of strengthening public accountability of some of the important
social sector programmes, which account huge resource mobilisation
such as the flagship programmes.
 Conceived on the lines of Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the
IMF, the body was created on the basis of international experiences, in
cooperation with the World Bank and the British DFID (Department for
International Development)—it was modelled on the lines of Mexico’s
National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy.
 The IEO was an independent office attached to the Planning
Commission under a Governing Board chaired by the Deputy Chairman
of the Planning Commission.
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 The IEO was funded by the Planning Commission and had, as its head, a
full-time Director General in the rank and status of Member of the
Planning Commission/Union Minister of State.
 The DG had a tenure of 3 years extendable to 5 years.
 Its staff was selected by the DG without any interference and to have its
independent budget.
 It was felt that the government programmes can benefit enormously from
concurrent independent evaluation.
 Presently, concurrent evaluation was done by the concerned ministries as
an on-going parallel process.
 Expert evaluation of programmes that have been in operation was done
by the Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) of the Planning
Commission—the IEO was expected to strengthen this evaluation
process.
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 Main aims of the office was:
 (i) To help improve the effectiveness of government policies and
programmes by assessing their impact and outcomes.
 (ii) To set guidelines and methodology for all evaluations done by
various departments, and agencies and encourage a culture of
openness and learning in government systems.
 (iii) To connect India to the best international evaluated evidence in
development practice and knowledge to learn from others success
and mistakes.
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 Main features about the functioning of the office may be summed-up as
given below:
 (i) It will conduct independent evaluations of plan programmes—especially
flagship programmes—and assess their effectiveness, relevance and
impact.
 Besides, it has the freedom to conduct independent evaluations on any
programme which has access to public funding or implicit or explicit
guarantees from the government.
 (ii) The work programme of the IEO will be prepared through an open
process of consultations, including feedback from civil society and will be
made public.
 (iii) The IEO will prepare the Terms of Reference for all independent
evaluations, which will be conducted by selected institutes and researchers,
selected on competitive basis.
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 (iv) IEO will provide guidance to any agency or department of the
government to improve the quality of it’s self evaluation and
monitoring system.
 Such support is intended to bring all evaluations under a common
internationally accepted methodology, help achieve better
development outcomes and encourage a culture of learning in the
government.
 (v) Besides making available on it’s website and other public
avenues, its reports will be submitted to the Parliament and the
Prime Minister’s Office.
 (vi) It will also make internationally available findings from
independently and professionally evaluated Indian programmes in
the spirit of South-South learning and cooperation.
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 (vii) IEO will represent India as it’s independent evaluation authority
at international forums on development and effectiveness and will
endeavour to improve India’s evaluation systems in line with
international best practices.
 The IEO handed over its first report to the Government in
September 2014 and in the following week, the DG of the IEO was
relieved from his services.
 Later on, the IEO was merged into the newly constituted (September
2015) monitoring and evaluation body, the Development Monitoring
and Evaluation Office (DMEO).
 The functions and the special features of the IEO still reflect in the
new body.
 PROGRAMME EVALUATION ORGANISATION
 The Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) was established in
October 1952, as an independent organisation, under the general
guidance and direction of the Planning Commission (PC) with a specific
task of evaluating the community development programmes and other
Intensive Area Development Schemes.
 The evaluation set up was further strengthened by the development of
methods and techniques of evaluation in the 1st Plan and setting up of
evaluation machineries in the States during the 3rd (1961–66) and 4th
(1969–74) Plans.
 Gradually, with the extension of the programmes/schemes in a variety of
sectors, viz., agricultural cooperation, rural industries, fisheries, health,
family welfare, rural development, rural electrification, public distribution,
tribal development, social forestry, etc., the evaluation work undertaken by
the PEO was extended to other important CSSs.
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 The broad functions of the PEO include undertaking evaluation of
selected programmes/schemes under implementation, as per the
requirement of the various Divisions of the PC, Central Ministries
and Departments of the Government of India.
 The evaluation studies are designed to assess–
 (i) the performance,
 (ii) the process of implementation,
 (iii) the effectiveness of the delivery systems, and
 (iv) the impact of programmes
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 The objectives of the PEO:
 (i) Objective assessment of process and impact of the development
programmes,
 (ii) Identifying the areas of success and failures at different stages of
administration and execution, and analysis of reasons for success or
failure,
 (iii) Examining extension methods and people’s reactions thereto and
deriving lessons for future improvement in the formulation and
implementation of the new programmes/schemes.
 The PEO was merged into the newly constituted (September 2015)
monitoring and evaluation body, the Development Monitoring and
Evaluation Office (DMEO).
 The functions and the special features of the PEO very well reflect in the
new body.
 DEVELOPMENT MONITORING AND EVALUATION OFFICE
 The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) was
constituted by merging the erstwhile Program Evaluation Office (PEO)
and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) in September 2015.
 As an attached office under the Niti Aayog, it aims at fulfilling monitoring
and evaluation (M&E) mandate (i.e., function) of the Aayog.
 It is entrusted with building M&E ecosystem in the country with the
following functions:
 (i) Monitoring progress and efficacy of policies/programmes, taking
initiatives to help improvements including necessary mid-course
corrections.
 (ii) Evaluating implementation of programmes and identification of
needed resources to strengthen success and scope of delivery.
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 As a part of NITI Aayog, DMEO has advisory powers across the Ministries and
Departments of the Union Government, and is one of few institutions within the
government to provide a cross- and inter-ministerial perspective.
 It has mandate of technical advisory to States also.
 For M&E the ‘output-outcome framework’ (as prescribed by the Union Budget
2019-20) has been evolved .
 This framework has measurable indicators for the objectives (i.e., ‘outcome’) for
all of the centrally sponsored schemes and central sector schemes.
 Sectoral reviews are done by the office on the basis of the outcomes achieved
by the schemes.
 All of the functions and special features of the erstwhile bodies, the IEO and
PEO, are still with the DMEO added with several new and dynamic features to
serve the changed developmental needs of the country on the path of
transformation.