One size doesn’t fit all; an important lesson that the Indian policymakers took only 65 years to learn.

The Indian government has decided to abolish the Planning Commission, a relic of the Soviet-style central policy mindset, and replace it with the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), which will serve as a think-tank and a “directional and policy dynamo.” Instead of trying to govern India from New Delhi, NITI will adopt a regional approach. The Prime Minister will head NITI and its Governing Council will comprise States’ chief ministers and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.

The Planning Commission in India was established in March 1950. Over the years, the Commission became a tool to grow the public sector and made the state both the operator and the regulator. The Commission consolidated the control at the centre resulting in made in Delhi policies being forced fed to the States and Union Territories.

NITI, instead, is intended to be a think-tank for the central and the state governments with enough diversity in its central and regional bodies to provide “relevant strategic and technical advice” that will help the Central, State, and local governments deliver on their mandates.