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The Government of India’s premier policy think tank, NITI Aayog was launched in 2015 to provide directional, policy and relevant technical advice to the Centre, States, and Union Territories. In addition, it was enacted to design strategic and long-term policies and programmes for the Government. It replaced the Planning Commission which was (until 2015) running for 65 years. However, the usefulness and significance of the Commission have been questioned for a long time. Experts opine that NITI Aayog is a more relevant solution to the current economic needs of our nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chairman of NITI Aayog, whereas the vice-chairman is Dr Rajiv Kumar (September 2017 – present). NITI Aayog full form stands for the “National Institution for Transforming India.” It aims to boost its economic growth and development and build a strong nation.
Two hubs fall under NITI Aayog, namely:
Team India: It is in charge of leading Indian states’ participation and the central government.
Knowledge and Innovation Hub: This develops the thinking capabilities for the nation.
NITI Aayog is building itself as a state-of-art Resource Centre with all necessary resources to speed up and advance the government’s research and innovation powers to help it manage unforeseen problems.
Objectives of NITI Aayog
The objectives of NITI Aayog comprise of the following points:
Help the states actively participate in national objectives and help create a national plan.
To boost cooperative federalism with the help of state initiatives of support and means from the states.
To develop methods to create a reliable strategy in villages and accumulate them at a higher level.
To create an economic policy to incorporate national security goals.
To especially consider the parts of society that are probably not profiting from economic progress.
To develop long-term initiatives, strategies and frameworks, and review their effectiveness regularly.
To give advice and encourage the partnerships of significant stakeholders, national and international think tanks, educational and research institutions.
To build a community of national and international experts who will generate knowledge, innovation, and entrepreneurial support.
To create a platform to resolve issues between different sectors and departments, speeding up the achievement of the progressive agenda.
To build a Resource Centre—a centre of research of good governance, and build the best methods for the sustainable and equitable development of India.
To efficiently screen and assess the implementation of all initiatives and programs, including identifying all required resources to bolster the chances of success.
To give attention to technology improvement and build the capacity to discharge all programs and initiatives.
To take up all necessary activities to implement the national development plan and other objectives.
The 7 Pillars of NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog has been built upon 7 pillars of effective governance. They are as follows:
Pro-people: It accomplishes the needs of society and its people
Pro-activity: It is active in its anticipation and response to the needs of citizens
Participation: It involves the participation of all citizens
Empowering: It empowers the citizens, especially women, in all spheres
Inclusion of all: It includes all citizens, irrespective of their gender, race, or caste
Equality: It provides equal opportunity to all, especially to the youth of the country
Transparency: It aims to make the government visible and responsive to all citizens.
Composition of NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog consists of the following members:
The chairperson is India’s Prime Minister.
The governing council comprises the Chief Ministers of every state in India, and Lt. governors of all union territories.
Regional councils are created by the Prime minister for a fixed term to deal with specific issues that may affect the flow of activities in more than one state. It comprises the Chief Ministers from all states and Lt. governors of all the union territories.
Special invitees include eminent experts and specialists with relevant domain knowledge, whom the Prime Minister invites.
NITI Aayog also has a vice-chairperson, nominated by India’s present Prime Minister, full-time and part-time members (maximum two members), ex officio members (maximum 2 members elected by the president and his council of ministers), and a Chief Executive Officer who is once again selected by the PM on a fixed term.
Achievements of NITI Aayog
The achievements of NITI Aayog are as follows:
The Government of India set up a collaborative research program between NITI Aayog and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations to monitor India’s Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme. Running between 23rd September and 31 December 2019, the first phase of MAFAP monitors and reforms food and agricultural policies.
NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) and technical support from the World Bank, has been leading the Health Index initiative since 2017.
It promotes Zero Budget Natural Farming.
It promoted the ‘Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati’ programme that falls under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).
It has conceptualised the village storage scheme. It has also proposed the Dhaanya Lakshmi Village Storage Scheme, which is yet to be implemented.
Conclusion
A significant evolutionary change from the 1950’s Planning Commission, NITI Aayog serves as the Government of India’s central platform for bringing states together to act in the national interest, fostering cooperative federalism.
It is expected that the NITI Aayog will play a significant role in developing India. Therefore, for candidates who have been preparing for the IIT-JEE (Advanced) entrance examination, the NITI Aayog can fall amongst one of the essential topics in the syllabus.
