Former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh yesterday said with the abolition of the Planning Commission, fresh efforts were needed to ensure social, economic equality.
“Development planning and the Planning Commission were designed to ensure that while our economy grew, inequalities did not. With the abolition of the Planning Commission fresh efforts have to be made to keep inequality under control,” Manmohan Singh said.
He was speaking at the inaugural function of the academic session of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) in Bengaluru.
Manmohan Singh, considered as the architect of the economic liberalisation measures unleashed in 1991, said the economic liberalisation that he was associated with in 1991-96 and 2004-2014 was above all the process of opening of new opportunities for people born without social and economic privileges.
He added that the process is, however, incomplete, and a lot of fresh thinking is needed to work out a new design for social and economic policy which would help in achieving high economic growth rate and curbing the economic inequalities.
The former prime minister has only echoed the voice of intellect and has once again proven, that the one who sits on the throne ought to have rationality and intellect.