G. Vijaya Raghavan, P.P. Balan among four members appointed to Kerala State Planning Board

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The State government has appointed four members to the Kerala State Planning Board including former technocrat G. Vijaya Raghavan and local governance expert P.P. Balan.

The other two members are environmentalist Sridhar Radhakrishnan and New Delhi-based Varun Santhosh, the Planning and Economic Affairs department said in an August 29 order. This is Mr. Vijaya Raghavan’s third stint as a Planning Board member. Mr. Balan was a former Director of the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA).

The appointments have been made in the “interest of strengthening the board’s advisory and planning capacity,” the department said.

In July, the UDF government had reconstituted the Planning Board with Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan as the chairperson and former Union Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar as the vice-chairperson. And in August, the State government appointed D. Narayana, former Director, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), as Senior Economic Advisor and Kiran Kumar Kakarlapudi, Assistant Professor, GIFT, and M. Parameswaran, Professor, Centre for Development Studies, as Economic Advisors to Mr. Chandrasekhar.

The appointments are keenly watched given the UDF government’s plans to transform the Planning Board into a ‘think tank’ for the government. The first recommendation in this regard had come in the White Paper laid in the State Assembly in June. The suggestion also featured in the Revised Budget for the 2026-27 fiscal. The proposal has drawn flak from the Opposition LDF which alleged that the government was aping the BJP government, which had replaced the Planning Commission with the NITI Aayog.

However, in a written reply to the State Legislative Assembly on July 1 this year, Mr. Satheesan said that the Planning Board ,“which plays a crucial role in the State’s development”, and the five-year plans will be continued.

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