New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS): Consultations were held here Tuesday on the proposed new design and structure for the Planning Commission (PC) following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day declaration scrapping the powerful panel, an official statement said.

"The Prime Minister had invited ideas from people on what shape the new institution to replace the Planning Commission can take," the Planning Commission said in the statement.

"A special open forum was created on the website mygov.nic.in for inviting suggestions on the new institution," it added.

"We envision the proposed Institution as one that caters to the aspirations of the 21st century India and strengthens participation of the states," Modi had tweeted, reflecting on the basic idea that he has for the new body.

Among the various experts present at Tuesday's consultations were former finance minister Yaswant Sinha, former finance secretaries Bimal Jalan and Vijay Kelkar, and ex-advisor to the finance ministry Shankar Acharya.

Modi had said the importance of federalism was growing and institutions needed to address such reality. "This is a good thing (growing import of federal structure). We must strengthen it," he said, adding: "Times have changed from the era Planning Commission was created."

The Planning Commission was conceived by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who thought India's goals and objectives can be best addressed with a planned economy, an idea he borrowed from the then Soviet Union. Accordingly, it was formed March 15, 1950, and with it were born the Five-Year Plans from 1951 onward.

The panel's redundancy was also the conclusion of the Independent Evaluation Office set up by the commission itself under Ajay Chibber, a Stanford-educated former assistant secretary general of the United Nations.

"It is clear the Planning Commission in its current form and function is a hindrance and not a help to India's development," said the report which became quite controversial as some said it had exceeded its brief.