Planning Commission to NITI Aayog: Continuity and Change in India's Development Planning System

This article analyses the institutional transformation of the Planning Commission into NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog in the wider context of continuity and change in the development planning system of India. According to the Karachi Resolution of 1931, which connected economic growth with social justice and secular nation building, planning in India began as a political and moral commitment during the liberation movement. This vision became institutionalized after India's independence in 1950, when the Planning Commission was established along with five-year plans. Planning has structural drawbacks such as centralization, federal imbalance, inequality, and administrative rigidity, even if it helps with industrial growth, infrastructure expansion, and improvements in socio-economic indices. After the NITI Aayog was established, planning was not completely abolished; rather, it was a significant institutional restructuring. The new structure places a higher priority on cooperative federalism, strategic coordination, and policy advice than on central resource allocation. The addition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particular Goal nine on infrastructure, industrialization, and innovation, illustrates how development priorities remain unchanged despite changes in planning instruments. Research performance, mobile network coverage, and the intensity of CO2 emissions are empirical indicators that show changing development strategies in sustainability and technology objectives. The study concludes that, despite maintaining its fundamental developmental goals, India's planning system has experienced structural changes in reaction to globalization and liberalization.