NITI Aayog

NITI Aayog was established on 1st Jan 2015. The headquarters of NITI Aayog is in New Delhi and was established by the Indian government. Before NITI Aayog, there was a Planning Commission formed on 15 March 1950.

The Planning Commission was non-constitutional. This commission had two major functions: first, to formulate five-year plans, and second, to distribute money to states and ministries. The first 5-year plan was formulated for 1951-56, and the final five-year plan was formulated for 2012-17. When the Narendra Modi government came into power, it abolished the Planning Commission, replacing it with NITI Aayog. 

India has had, so far, a total of 12 five-year plans. They were all given by the Planning Commission, and then the Planning Commission was discontinued and replaced with NITI Aayog. The difference between the Planning Commission and the NITI Aayog is that there are no five-year plans and no allocation of funds to states and ministries by NITI Aayog. So, NITI Aayog performs its functions in quite a different manner from the Planning Commission. 

NITI Aayog is short for the National Institution for Transforming India. NITI Aayog is often referred to as a think tank. It advises the government on different issues. There are many issues that the country faces in the defense sector, in health education, in recrafting our education policy. The Planning Commission follows a top-down approach, whereas NITI Aayog follows a bottom-down approach.

Objectives NITI Aayog:

The objectives of the NITI Aayog are as follows: 

• Shared vision: The implementation of strategies needs the participation of both central and state governments for the national development of sectors. Through this, they can create a shared vision for the development of communities
• Cooperative federalism: Cooperative federalism is a state government, central government, and local government that stands shoulder to shoulder to achieve a common aim. NITI Aayog has a multidirectional flow of policies that is from central to state, state to central, and between ministries, etc
• Credible Planning: In NITI Aayog, they do credible planning for the development of villages where the nation’s heart lies
• Weaker sections: It focuses on areas that are specially referred to as national security areas. So, it also pays special attention to vulnerable sections of our society, i.e., women, children, etc
• Strategies and long-term policies: It makes strategies and policies for more than five years because it makes plans to achieve the objective, which can be achieved through a long-term process
• Innovation: NITI Aayog gives more importance to the innovation sector for creating knowledge. It gives entrepreneurial support by collaborating with communities of national and international experts and other partners
• Offer platforms: It offers a platform for the determination of inter-sectoral and inter-departmental issues for the implementation of the planned objective
• Technology up-gradation: It focuses on technology upgrading and capacity building to smoothly implement the planned programs

Composition of NITI Aayog: 

The composition of the NITI Aayog is as follows: 

Achievement of NITI Aayog:

Compared to the Planning Commission, which was 64 years old when it was replaced by NITI Aayog, the NITI Aayog has made many achievements within fewer years. Some of their achievements are listed below:

• On innovation and entrepreneurship: NITI Aayog gives more of its focus on innovation. Only entrepreneurs are the real innovators in the market. So, they give more of their support to entrepreneurial services by collaborating with national and international experts
• On cooperative federalism: It collaborates with the states as teamwork to work towards the national development agenda. It acts as a quintessential platform for the government of India
• On agricultural development: The first decision taken in the first meeting of the governing council of NITI Aayog held on 8 February 2015 was a task force on agricultural development. Food is the very first necessity of every person. So, the primary focus of NITI Aayog was on agricultural development
• Digitalization movement: Technology is changing day by day. To cope with the changing technology, it needs to adapt to changes with the changing technologies. It is called a digitalized movement in the faculty of rising digital India
• Increase in FDI: The creation of jobs and an increase in productive capacity, which can be directly measured in aggregate supply, is called an increase in FDI. NITI Aayog is also investing in foreign goods to increase its share in foreign currency, which increases the liquid capacity of the Indian currency

Seven Pillars of NITI Aayog:

1. Pro–people: This pillar explains that it fulfills the aspirations of society as well as individuals. It had been taken into consideration while planning for society.
2. Proactivity: It focuses more on forecasting and responding to citizens’ needs than other things. 
3. Participation: NITI Aayog is made for the democratic country of India, which gives democratic rights to every citizen so that the participation of every citizen is taken while preparing for any strategy.
4. Empowering: It gives respect to women also. It is empowering to men and women both in all its aspects.
5. Inclusion of all: It does not differentiate between people due to their caste and creed. It gives the same respect to all people irrespective of caste, creed, and gender.
6. Equality: NITI Aayog is established on equality. It gives everyone an opportunity, especially our youth, due to their innovative mindset.
7. Transparency: Transparency makes the government visible and responsive. So, NITI Aayog is fully transparent and has shown all its work.

Conclusion

NITI Aayog facilitates and empowers the critical requirements of good governance. It contains seven pillars that show that it takes into consideration the aspirations of society and individuals both. It gives a chance to every citizen to participate and collaborate with each process of NITI Aayog. Its work is transparent, which shows that the government is more visible and responsive. It provides critical directions and strategic input to the development process. It gives more focus on delivery, outcome, and accountability.