Introduction :

The Planning Investment Promotion and Sustainable Development Department is responsible for overall planning, working out a strategy for sustainable development to maximize the national product, laying down guidelines for departments to formulate departmental programme and schemes. The Department also takes up appraisal of the schemes and projects of State Government Departments.

                        With the discontinuation of the “Plan’ and ‘Development Expenditure’ Budget, Planning Department is presently no longer involved in the process of budgetary allocations. However, with the change in vision both at the national and State level along with the increasing reliance on digitization,the role of the Department has significantly transformed as highlighted below : –

• Planning Department is now oriented towards the role of garnering possible investments for development of the State. Accordingly, the State Government has set up the Meghalaya State Investment Promotion Board (MSIPB) and the Meghalaya Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation under the administrative control of the Planning Department. With this objective, the State Government, through Planning Department, has also entered into an agreement with Invest India which is working in close coordination with MSIPB.
• The Department is the nodal department for all Externally Aided Projects which have enabled the State to bring in substantial resources across various sectors ranging from livelihoodimprovement, rural development, upgradation and improvement of infrastructure in terms ofconnectivity, market linkages and power besides developmental activities in the social sector such as education, health care and nutrition.
• To attract resources for investment, Planning Department is also responsible for projects which can be availed under Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). The recently issuedpolicy guidelines for PPPstipulate that the State PPP Cell will be housed in the Planning Department.
• The Planning Department is also responsible for the selection of projects which are to be posed to the different Ministries of the Government of India and other financial agencies to avail assistance under the different schemes and programmes. These include the Ministry of DoNER, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Minority Affairs, NABARD, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievance (DARPG).
• It may also be noted that Planning Department has been made the nodal department for the recently announced programmes of the Government of India like the PM-DevINE and PM Gati Shakti. Further, Planning Department is working in close coordination with Finance (Economic Affairs) Department in respect of posing of projects for funding under the Special Assistance to States forCapital Expenditure to the Ministry of Finance.
• Planning Department is the nodal department to liaise with the NITI Aayog. In this connection, the department is coordinating with all the concerned departments in the State in respect of the Sustainable Development Goals for which necessary framework have been put in place. The Department is also closely monitoring the implementation of schemes and programmes with respect to the relevant SDGs.
• The implementation of schemes and projects in the Ri Bhoi District which has been selected as the only Aspirational District in the State is also being mandated with the Planning Department.
• To bring about improvement in governance and initializing the digitization process, Planning Department was made the nodal department for e-office. Further, the State Government has given the responsibility of implementation of the Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture (MeghEA) to the Planning Department through which various initiatives such as Finance Solution Architecture and the e-Proposal System (ePS) have been taken up.
• The State Government had also recently launched the MyMeg Project which is under the administrative control of the Planning Department. The MyMeg Project is a citizen engagement initiative to bring about transparency and encourage participatory governance in policies, programmes and issues concerning the State. The project also serves as a repository of information on important schemes and programmes.