The Planning Commission has set up 17 consultative groups for inducting alternative perspectives into the process of mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Five Year Plan.

The groups include members from multilateral institutions, corporates, industry associations, trade unions, non-governmental organisations, thinktanks and the government.

These groups will provide guidance in the selection of the key issues and emerging problems for preparing inputs for the mid-term appraisal. They will also assess the existing institutional delivery mechanisms and give specific recommendations to make them more effective, said an official press release.

"The committees have been set up to enable the plan body to get feedback from experts. Their suggestions will be used to evaluate the programmes. The aim is to achieve the objectives of the Tenth plan and incorporating the aims and objectives of the National Common Minimum Programme," said Balachandra Mungekar, Member, Planning Commission.

The consultative groups have been set up on social inclusion and empowerment, labour & employment, poverty elimination and rural employment, environment & forest, agriculture, water resources, culture, higher & technical education, elementary & secondary education and literacy, youth affairs & sports, transport sector, tourism sector, industry, urban infrastructure, external sector and energy.

Each group will be chaired by a Member of the Planning Commission and will include subject experts from government and non-governmental agencies as members.

The committees will be required to review the draft material provided by the Planning Commission and by central ministries.