NITI Aayog Governing Council

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Source: Kurukshethra

NITI Aayog

The Government of India through a cabinet resolution replaced the Planning Commission with a new institution named NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India)

The NITI Aayog has been mandated with fostering cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms with the States on a continuous basis, recognizing that strong States make a strong nation. It seeks to design and assist the implementation of strategic, long-term policy frameworks and programme initiatives, and also monitor their progress and efficacy.

Objectives of NITI Aayog

• To evolve a shared vision of national development priorities, sectors and strategies with the active involvement of States.
• To foster cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms with the States on a continuous basis, recognizing that strong States make a strong nation.
• To develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government.
• To ensure, on areas that are specifically referred to it, that the interests of national security are incorporated in economic strategy and policy.
• To pay special attention to the sections of our society that may be at risk of not benefiting adequately from economic progress.
• To design strategic and long term policy and programme frameworks and initiatives, and monitor their progress and their efficacy. The lessons learnt through monitoring and feedback will be used for making innovative improvements, including necessary mid-course corrections.
• To provide advice and encourage partnerships between key stakeholders and national and international like-minded Think tanks, as well as educational and policy research institutions.
• To create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other partners.
• To offer a platform for resolution of inter-sectoral and inter­ departmental issues in order to accelerate the implementation of the development agenda.
• To maintain a state-of-the-art Resource Centre, be a repository of research on good governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development as well as help their dissemination to stake-holders.
• To actively monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and initiatives, including the identification of the needed resources so as to strengthen the probability of success and scope of delivery.
• To focus on technology upgradation and capacity building for implementation of programmes and initiatives.
• To undertake other activities as may be necessary in order to further the execution of the national development agenda, and the objectives mentioned above.

Functions

NITI Aayog is developing itself as a State-of-the-art Resource Centre, with the necessary resources, knowledge and skills, that will enable it to act with speed, promote research and innovation, provide strategic policy vision for the government, and deal with contingent issues.

NITI Aayog’s entire gamut of activities can be divided into four main heads:

1. Design Policy & Programme Framework
2. Foster Cooperative Federalism
3. Monitoring & Evaluation
4. Think Tank and Knowledge & Innovation Hub

Governing council 

It is the premier body tasked with evolving a shared vision of national development priorities, sectors and strategies with the active involvement of States in shaping the development narrative

Components of Governing council

 The council is constituted by the Prime Minister of India with the following composition:

• Chairperson: Prime Minister
• Ex officio Members, NITI Aayog
• Full-time Members NITI Aayog
• Chief Ministers of all states, UTs and Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Island
• Four Union Ministers as ex-officio members and three Union Ministers as Special Invitees

Importance

The Governing Council, which embodies the objectives of cooperative federalism, presents a platform to discuss inter-sectoral, inter-departmental and federal issues in order to accelerate the implementation of the national development agenda, in the spirit of Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat

Meetings

With the regular meetings being held the spirit of the meeting was to build on the strength of every State so that each State can learn from the innovation and best practices of other States. Following are the meetings of the council since its constitution;

• The First Meeting was held in February 2015, at which the Prime Minister laid down the key mandates of NITI Aayog such as fostering cooperative federalism and addressing national issues through active participation of the States.
• The Second Meeting of the Governing Council took place in July 2015 and 
• The third Meeting was held on 23 April 2017, which laid down milestones in shaping the country’s development agenda through strategy and vision documents.
• The Fourth meeting of the Governing Council was held on 17 June 2018 and included reviewing measures taken for doubling farmers’ income and progress made under flagship schemes such as the Ayushman Bharat, POSHAN Abhiyaan and Mission Indradhanush

Fifth meeting and Agenda for the meeting

Recently fifth Council meeting held in July 2019 and the Agenda before the Fifth Council Meeting were the following items:

1. Rain-Water Harvesting
2. Drought Situation and Relief Measures
3. Aspirational Districts Programme – Achievements And Challenges 
4. Transforming Agriculture: Need For Structural Reforms With Special Emphasis On:
   1. Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act
   2. Essential Commodities Act (ECA)  
5. Security Related Issues with Specific Focus On LWE Districts

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