The Board is headed by the Chairperson and consists of Vice Chairperson, Members (Ministers and non-Ministers), and Member Secretary. Chief Secretary to the Government and Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department are permanent invitees to the Board. The Chairperson of the Board is the Chief Minister of the State. The term of the Board is co-terminus with the term of the ruling Government.

The main function of the State Planning Board is to formulate Five-Year and Annual Plans, prepare the annual Economic Review, monitor Plan implementation, coordinate with different Departments with respect to Plan schemes, coordinate the work of the Decentralisation Cell, commission studies, provide inputs and recommendations with respect to externally aided programmes, centrally sponsored schemes, and to prepare policy briefs for the Chairperson.

The Board at a Glance

The Board was constituted in September, 1967 with the Chief Minister as Chairperson and a Vice-Chairperson. In addition to Minister for Finance and Chief Secretary to the Government, there were three full time members. The Director, Bureau of Economics and Statistics, was the first Member Secretary. The Board was formed in order to enable the State Government to formulate development Plans based on a scientific assessment of the resources of the State on the one hand and the growth priorities on the other. The Board was also entrusted with the task of bringing out a comprehensive Economic Review of the State every year. The Board has been reconstituted 15 times since 1967.

The Board was reconstituted in 2016 after the present Government assumed office. The structure and composition of the Board is as given below:

Chairperson : Sri Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister
Vice Chairperson : Prof V K Ramachandran

Members

  • Sri. K.Rajan, Minister for Revenue and Housing
  • Sri. K.N. Balagopal, Minister for Finance
  • Sri. Roshy Augustine, Minister for Water Resources
  • Sri. K. Krishnankutty, Minister for Electricity
  • Sri. A. K. Saseendran, Minister for Forests, Wild life protection
  • Sri. Ramachandran Kadannappalli, Minister for Registration, Museums and Archaeology
  • Sri. K B Ganeshkumar, Minister for Transport
  • Prof. R. Ramkumar
  • Dr P.K. Jameela
  • Prof. Mini Sukumar
  • Prof. Jiju P. Alex
  • Sri. V. Namasivayam
  • Dr K Ravi Raman
  • Sri. Santhosh George Kulangara

Member Secretary

  • Dr. Rathan.U.Kelkar IAS

Permanent Invitees

  • Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala.
  • Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Kerala

Members

The non-Minister members are from various fields of expertise and are nominated from time to time by the Government. These members provide expert advice and inputs in the domains of their expertise, on Plan formulation and policy matters to the Government.

Member Secretary

The Member Secretary is the official Member of the Board responsible for convening Board meetings, and ensuring the implementation of Board decisions through the Departments and agencies concerned. The Chiefs of the technical divisions provide support to the Member Secretary in technical matters. The Administrative Officer assists the Member Secretary in administrative matters.

Functions of the Kerala State Planning Board

  1. Formulating Five-Year and Annual Plans
  2. Writing the annual Economic Review
  3. Monitoring Plan implementation through Planspace, the Management Information System
  4. Interdepartmental coordination with respect to Plan schemes
  5. Housing and coordinating the work of the Decentralisation Cell
  6. Commissioning studies and fulfilling a think-tank function
  7. Coordinating information and recommendations with respect to externally aided programmes, centrally sponsored schemes, NABARD, and CSR funds
  8. Preparing policy briefs for the Chairperson
  9. Responding to requests from Departments for instruction and advice.

Administrative Structure

The administrative structure of the Board comprises of technical divisions, administrative wing and District Planning Offices. The substantive functions of the Board are carried out through its technical divisions. Each division is headed by a Chief who is a domain expert. There are Joint Directors, Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors, Research Officers and Research Assistants to assist the Chief in each division. The Administrative Officer assists the Member Secretary in administrative matters.

Technical Divisions

There are seven technical divisions in the Board to carry out the technical functions of the Board. They are:

  1. Agriculture
  2. Decentralised Planning
  3. Evaluation
  4. Industry and Infrastructure
  5. Perspective Planning
  6. Plan Coordination
  7. Social Service

Administrative Wing

The Administrative wing is headed by the Senior Administrative Officer and is composed of Establishment, Accounts, Publication, Plan Publicity, Fair Copy and Computer sections. The Finance Officer is in charge of Accounts section, and the Administrative Assistant looks after Establishment matters. Senior Superintendents are in charge of the Fair Copy and Computer Section, while Publication Officer and Plan Publicity Officer manage the Publication and Plan Publicity Sections respectively.

District Planning Offices

The District Planning units were established in the late 1970s to help decentralised participatory planning. District Planning Offices function under the guidance of the Planning Board and they are under the control of the District Collector. Officers of the Board are appointed as District Planning Officers. A District Planning Officer is designated as ex-officio Personal Assistant to the District Collector and Secretary to the District Development Council. District Planning Offices play a key role in the formulation of Plan schemes and in monitoring their implementation.

The Library

The Library is a Government library of significance, categorised as a special library and has a large number of titles in areas such as economic development, planning, finance, management, gender studies, industry, Indian economics, and national and international reports in the field of economic development. Reports published by the Board such as Plan Working Group reports, Evaluation Studies and Expert Committee Reports are part of this collection. The total collection is more than 20,000 books.

Formulation of Annual Plan

The Board is responsible for the formulation of Annual Plans.

Every year, the Finance Department of the Government provides a financial envelope to the State Planning Board. The Board writes to all Departments to submit the Plan proposals for the next financial year. Based on the draft proposals prepared by the Departments, the Board members and division Chiefs hold discussions with Secretaries, Department heads and senior officers. Final discussions are held with Ministers by the Vice Chairperson.

The Plan proposals and Budget for each scheme are finalised after these discussions, and the Annual Plan approved in a meeting of the full Board. Thereafter, the Annual Plan is placed before the Council of Ministers for final approval.

Preparation of Annual Economic Review

The Board was assigned the task of preparing annual Economic Review to be presented along with the Budget Document to the State legislature at the time of its inception. The first Economic Review was published in 1959 prior to the constitution of State Planning Board. The Bureau of Economic Studies prepared the first report. After the constitution of the Board, the Economic Review is being prepared and published by the Board.

Every year, the Economic Review is placed before the Legislative Assembly on the day prior to the presentation of the Budget. The process of preparation of the Economic Review starts in October every year with all Departments contributing data on various parameters. The Directorate of Economics and Statistics provides the data on Gross State Domestic Product and Gross State Value Added. The Board compiles all data, analyses it, and prepares the Review.

The Economic review is considered as a valuable reference text as it gives an overall view of the State economy, macro-economic performance, development initiatives taken by various Departments in that particular year, and progress in the Plan implementation. Digitised version of Economic Review from 1959 onwards is available on the official website of the Board.