THOSE WERE DAYS

The Finance Commission has played a critical role in India’s federalstructure since 1952. Every five years, this constitutional body produces areport recommending what share of the Union Government’s divisible taxpool should be devolved to the states, and how this aggregate should bedistributed among the different states, among other recommendations onfiscal governance. In between its appointment and submission of its Report,the Finance Commission tends to spend the intervening period in therelative secrecy of internal discussions and state visits. Despite the excitementabout the Commissions in the media, and among the public, leaders andbureaucrats in states, little is publicly known about the rich experiencesthat the members and staff of the Commission gain while visiting all thestates of our large and diverse country, and their interpersonal interactions.Those Were the Days captures vignettes of such experiences of the 15thFinance Commission. It is a book not of history or economics or evensecret deliberations within the Commission, but one that captures the joysof working as a team, a sense of discovery of the unity in diversity thatis India and the great camaraderie that it enjoyed with leaders and civilservants in the different states.