The Finance Commission has played a critical role in India's federal
structure since 1952. Every five years, this constitutional body produces a
report recommending what share of the Union Government's divisible tax
pool should be devolved to the states, and how this aggregate should be
distributed among the different states, among other recommendations on
fiscal governance. In between its appointment and submission of its Report,
the Finance Commission tends to spend the intervening period in the
relative secrecy of internal discussions and state visits. Despite the excitement
about the Commissions in the media, and among the public, leaders and
bureaucrats in states, little is publicly known about the rich experiences
that the members and staff of the Commission gain while visiting all the
states of our large and diverse country, and their interpersonal interactions.
Those Were the Days captures vignettes of such experiences of the 15th
Finance Commission. It is a book not of history or economics or even
secret deliberations within the Commission, but one that captures the joys
of working as a team, a sense of discovery of the unity in diversity that
is India and the great camaraderie that it enjoyed with leaders and civil
servants in the different states.
