An Upstart in Government

For five years, 2009-14, Arun Maira sat in India's cockpit, as a member of the national Planning Commission. From this perch, the panoply of India was visible. These were years of great changes in the country ending with the decimation in the national elections of the Congress party that had ruled India since its Independence and the emergence of a new political configuration in government. The Planning Commission, a hoary old institution, was also set aside, a change in which Maira played an im