The story so far: After the general elections, in which some alterations were made to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on July 16, reconstituted NITI Aayog, a government think tank. The think tank shall now include four full-time members and 15 Union Ministers from BJP and allies of NDA either as ex-officio members or special invitees. In a Facebook post announcing this move, the Niti Aayog said “In pursuit of a whole-of-government approach to development that encourages innovations and initiatives that will reshaped India’s future.”
What do we know about rearrangements done at Aayog?
While economist Suman K Berry continues as vice chairperson, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the chairman of NITI Aayog. Mr Berry took over after Rajiv Kumar resigned in 2022. Prior to this Mr Berry who has held his current position also served both in the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and National Statistical Commission according to The Hindu Businessline.
Besides Dr V.K. Paul , Dr Arvind Virmani and Ramesh Chand , it is confirmed that VK Saraswat would still remain as a permanent member at NITI Ayog
NITI Aayog has been restructured with Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal (Secular), Union Minister for Micro Small Medium Enterprises Jitan Ram Manjhi belonging Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Union Minister for Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu from Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Union Food Processing Industry Chirag Paswan of Lok Jansakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Union Fisheries Animal Husbandry Dairying Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh from Janta Dal (United) being included in it.
Apart from this, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture Minister and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan are members of the think-tank.
What is the role of NITI Aayog in planning?
NITI Aayog: National Institution for Transforming India is country’s apex public policy think-tank which was created by a government. This is accomplished by taking bottom-up approach whereby foundational aspects at the lowest level are considered first before addressing those on the highest level.
NITI Aayog is engaged in four main areas of activity: policy and programme framework, cooperative and competitive federalism, monitoring and evaluation, think-tank activities, knowledge creation and innovation hub. Its diverse units and offices arranged along sectoral and functional lines provide the necessary backstopping to help NITI Aayog “evolve into a state-of-the-art resource centre with requisite knowledge and skills.” The aim is to ensure that Niti works with “speediness, promotion of research and innovation, provision of strategic policy perspective for the government and addressing contingency issues.” However things changed later on due to globalization.
Council of Governing consists of Chief Ministers from all States and Union territories having Legislatures as well as Lieutenant Governors of other Union territories. The Council acts as a forum for deliberations among different sectors, departments at the Centre along with states to speed up implementation of national development agenda.
The SDG India Index (Sustainable Development Goals India Index) is prepared by the Aayog. It tracks the progress made by all states/UTs on 113 indicators aligned to MoSPI’s National Indicator Framework.The SDG India Index computes goal-wise scores on the 16 sustainable development goals (adopted in 2015 at UN) for each State/UT. According to its last report, India’s composite score improved from 22 in 2020-21 to 77 in 2023-24. Regardless global headwinds however, this report stated that it had achieved ‘accelerated progress’ towards SDGs. “The Government’s focus on ensuring food and nutrition security, health, education, electrfifcation housing for all sanitation clean cooking fuel energy has significantly contributed to the improvements,” said the report.
In January 2015, the Planning Commission was replaced by Niti Aayog, as announced by Prime Minister Modi earlier from Red Fort during Independence Day speech in August 2014.
What led to the replacement of the Planning Commission?
The NITI Aayog was created mainly for pursuing a bottom-up approach (as outlined above with respect to indicators & focus areas). A press release from the Prime Minister’s office at that time explained, “The centre-to-state one-way flow of policy that was the hallmark of the Planning Commission era is now sought to be replaced by a genuine and continuing partnership of States.” Besides, it disclosed that “the Aayog will develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans to the village level and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government.” In addition, “it would ensure special attention to the sections of society that may be at risk of not benefitting adequately from economic progress,” the release stated.
Furthermore, an internal assessment within Government in 2017 had identified, amongst others, “policy fatigue” creeping into the Planning Commission which necessitated structural reforms in central planning. Another paragraph said: ”Few might mourn the loss of the Planning Commission.” The earlier exercise in planning did little for public sector investments or for public-private partnerships. The proliferation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes contributed to severe distortions in public spending.
