India, Jan. 27 -- In a budget speech made 75 years ago, the then finance minister John Mathai announced the setting up of a new expert body to coordinate and guide economic activities in India - the Planning Commission. Mathai resigned soon after the new body was set up as he felt that it would infringe on the powers of the Union cabinet.

Mathai was a well-known economist of that era, and his public disavowal cast a shadow over the expert body. It was left to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his trusted band of technocrats to repair the damage. The planning body survived and came to play a pivotal role in shaping India's economic destiny.

The Planning Commission's intellectual heft played a big role in establishing its credibility. R...