Structure

Development Planning 
and Administration 
Significant Role in Developmental Policy Making: Senior Administrators in 
developing countries have been involved in the formulation of crucial policies in 
the realms of education, health, agriculture, irrigation, industries, housing, 
women and child development and other associated developmental areas. They 
have not only performed advisory role in preparing progressive legislations and 
policies but have also come out with their own innovative ideas and initiatives in 
almost all areas of social concern
One major problem in this sphere has been a multiplicity of policies and a lack of 
synthesis among them. Every new political regime or chief executive generally 
rejects the policies of predecessors and frames new policies and programmes. 
And, administrators have only to follow the directions of their political masters. 
Even in the changed situations, their role and importance in policy making 
remain crucial to the success of development administration. 
Planning System: All developing nations have adopted planning as the key 
instrument of development administration. Distinct organisations for plan 
formulation and evaluation have been set up at the federal, state, district and 
local levels in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other developing 
nations. The approach to socio-economic development is enshrined in plan-
documents and the whole state machinery is expected to cooperate with the 
national planning body to implement faithfully the national plans. 
Only recently, with the advent of liberalisation and privatisation, the role of 
government seems to have been redefined. There is stress on downsizing of the 
government and the transfer of development functions to the private sector. This 
has reduced the scope for detailed planning, and instead one notices a co-
existence of the traditional government planning and the emergent “indicative” 
planning. For example, even the Planning Commission reports of the 
Government of India in the early nineties referred to the utility of indicative 
planning. For the foreseeable future, the co-existence of detailed sectoral and 
indicative planning is most likely to remain.