NITI Aayog or National
Institution for Transforming India Aayog is a policy think-tank of Government of India that replaces Planning Commission and aims to involve the states in
economic policy-making in India.
It will be providing strategic and technical advice to the central and the
state governments’ i.e by adopting bottom-up approach rather than traditional
top-down approach as in planning commission. The Prime Minister heads the Aayog as its
chairperson.
On the first meet took place
here at Delhi with sign board labelled as TEAM INDIA on 07/02/2015
Union Government of India had announced formation of NITI Aayog
on 1 January 2015.
There are a couple of things
to be considered here. NITI Aayog would therefore mean:
• A group of people with
authority entrusted by the government to formulate/regulate policies concerning
transforming India.
• It is a commission to help
government in social and economic issues.
• Also it's an Institute of
think tank with experts in it.
India's Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley made the following observation on the necessity of creating NITI Ayog:
“The 65-year-old Planning Commission had become a redundant organization. It
was relevant in a command economy structure, but not any longer. India is a
diversified country and its states are in various phases of economic
development along with their own strengths and weaknesses. In this context, a
‘one size fits all’ approach to economic planning is obsolete. It cannot make
India competitive in today’s global economy”.
Difference between NITI
Aayog and Planning Commission
Financial
clout
NITI Aayog
- To be an advisory body, or a think-tank. The powers to allocate funds might
be vested in the finance ministry.
Planning
Commission - Enjoyed the powers to allocate funds to ministries and state
governments
Full-time
members
NITI Aayog
- The number of full-time members could be fewer than Planning Commission
Planning
Commission - The last Commission had eight full-time members
States'
role
NITI Aayog
- State governments are expected to play a more significant role than they did
in the Planning Commission
Planning
Commission - States' role was limited to the National Development Council and
annual interaction during Plan meetings
Member
secretary
NITI Aayog
- To be known as the CEO and to be appointed by the prime minister
Planning
Commission - Secretaries or member secretaries were appointment through the
usual process
Part-time
members
NITI Aayog
- To have a number of part-time members, depending on the need from time to
time
Planning
Commission - Full Planning Commission had no provision for part-time members
Constitution
Niti Aayog
- Governing Council has state chief ministers and lieutenant governors.
Planning
Commission- The commission reported to National Development Council that had
state chief ministers and lieutenant governors.
Organization
Niti Aayog
- New posts of CEO, of secretary rank, and Vice-Chairperson. Will also have
five full-time members and two part-time members. Four cabinet ministers will
serve as ex-officio members.
Planning
Commission - Had deputy chairperson, a member secretary and full-time members.
Participation
Niti
Aayog- Consulting states while making policy and deciding on funds allocation.
Final policy would be a result of that.
Planning
Commission- Policy was formed by the commission and states were then consulted
about allocation of funds.
Allocation
Niti
Aayog- No power to allocate funds
Planning
Commission- Had power to decide allocation of government funds for various
programmes at national and state levels.
Nature
Niti
Aayog- NITI is a think-tank and does not have the power to impose policies.
Planning
Commission- Imposed policies on states and tied allocation of funds with
projects it approved.
Aims and Objectives of NITI
Ayog
NITI Aayog
will seek to provide a critical directional and strategic input into the
development process.
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.
NITI Aayog
will emerge as a "think-tank" that will provide Governments at the
central and state levels with relevant strategic and technical advice across
the spectrum of key elements of policy.
The NITI
Aayog will also seek to put an end to slow and tardy implementation of policy,
by fostering better Inter-Ministry coordination and better Centre-State
coordination. It will help evolve a shared vision of national development
priorities, and foster cooperative federalism, recognizing that strong states
make a strong nation.
The NITI
Aayog will develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans to the village level
and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government. It will
ensure special attention to the sections of society that may be at risk of not
benefitting adequately from economic progress.
The NITI
Aayog will create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system
through a collaborative community of national and international experts,
practitioners and partners. It will offer a platform for resolution of
inter-sectoral and inter-departmental issues in order to accelerate the
implementation of the development agenda.
In
addition, the NITI Aayog will monitor and evaluate the implementation of
programmes, and focus on technology upgradation and capacity building.
Through
the above, the NITI Aayog will aim to accomplish the following objectives and
opportunities:
- An administration paradigm in which the Government is
an "enabler" rather than a "provider of first and last
resort."
- Progress from "food security" to focus on a
mix of agricultural production, as well as actual returns that farmers get
from their produce.
- Ensure that India is an active player in the debates
and deliberations on the global commons.
- Ensure that the economically vibrant middle-class
remains engaged, and its potential is fully realized.
- Leverage India's pool of entrepreneurial, scientific
and intellectual human capital.
- Incorporate the significant geo-economic and
geo-political strength of the Non-Resident Indian Community.
- Use urbanization as an opportunity to create a
wholesome and secure habitat through the use of modern technology.
- Use technology to reduce opacity and potential for
misadventures in governance.
- The
NITI Aayog aims to enable India to better face complex challenges, through
the following:
- Leveraging of India's demographic dividend, and
realization of the potential of youth, men and women, through education,
skill development, elimination of gender bias, and employment
- Elimination of poverty, and the chance for every Indian
to live a life of dignity and self-respect
- Reddressal of inequalities based on gender bias, caste
and economic disparities
- Integrate villages institutionally into the development
process
- Policy support to more than 50 million small
businesses, which are a major source of employment creation
- Safeguarding of our environmental and ecological assets.
Major Highlights
1. The new National
Institution for Transforming India (NITI) will act more like a think tank or
forum and execute programs by taking the States along with them. This is in
sharp contrast with the defunct Planning Commission which imposed
five-year-plans and allocated resources while running roughshod over the
requests of the various States.
2. NITI will include leaders
of India's 29 states and seven union territories. But its full-time staff - a
deputy chairman, Chief Executive Officer and experts - will answer directly to
the Prime Minister of India, who will be chairman.
3. The opposition Congress
mocked the launch as a cosmetic relabelling exercise - the new body's
acronym-based name means 'Policy Commission' in Hindi, suggesting a less bold
departure than the English version does. Several believe that is consistent
with the negativism that has become the hallmark of the Congress.
4. Despite being blamed by
critics for the slow growth that long plagued India, the Commission survived
the market reforms of the early 1990s, riling Mr Modi with its interventions
when he was Chief minister of industry and investor friendly Gujarat.
5. Mr Modi, elected by a
landslide last year on a promise to revive flagging growth and create jobs, had
vowed to do away with the Planning Commission that was set up in 1950 by
Congressman and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
6. But his plans been derided
by the Congress party, which wants to defend the Nehru legacy and describes Mr
Modi's vision of "cooperative federalism" as cover for a veiled power
grab.
7. India's first Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a socialist who admired Joseph Stalin's drive to
industrialize the Soviet Union, set up and chaired the Commission to map out a
development path for India's agrarian economy.
8. In 2012, the Planning
Commission was pilloried for spending some Rs. 35 lakh to renovate two office
toilets, and then it was lampooned for suggesting that citizens who spent Rs.
27 or more a day were not poor.
9. The commission had remained
powerful over the decades because it had emerged as a sort of parallel cabinet
with the Prime Minister as its head.
10. The Commission's power in
allocating central funds to states and sanctioning capital spending of the
central government was deeply resented by states and various government
departments.
11. The NITI Aayog will also
seek to put an end to slow and tardy implementation of policy, by fostering
better Inter-Ministry coordination and better Centre-State coordination. It
will help evolve a shared vision of national development priorities, and foster
cooperative federalism, recognizing that strong states make a strong Nation.
The various members of
NITI Aayog are:
·
1950 : Planning
commission was established
·
May 29, 2014 : The
first IEO(Independent Evaluation Office ) assessment report was submitted to
Prime Minister Modi on May 29, three days after he was sworn in. According to
Ajay Chibber, who heads the IEO, views in the report are based on the views of
stakeholders and some Planning Commission members themselves. Planning
Commission to be replaced by "control commission"
·
August 13, 2014 :
Cabinet of Modi govt. scrapped the Planning Commission
·
Aug. 15 2014 : Modi
mentioned to replace Planning Commission by National Development and Reform
Commission(NDRC) on the line of China
Members The NITI Aayog
comprises the following:
1.
Prime Minister of India
as the Chairperson
2.
Governing Council
comprising the Chief Ministers of
all the States and union territories with legislature and lieutenant governors
of other Union Territories
3.
Regional Councils will be
formed to address specific issues and contingencies impacting more than one
state or a region. These will be formed for a specified tenure. The Regional
Councils will be convened by the Prime Minister and will be consist of the Chief
Ministers of States and Lt. Governors of Union Territories in the region. These
will be chaired by the Chairperson of the NITI Aayog or his nominee
4.
Experts, specialists and
practitioners with relevant domain knowledge as special invitees nominated by the
Prime Minister
5.
Full-time organizational
framework (in addition to Prime Minister as the Chairperson) comprising
1.
Vice-Chairperson: Arvind
Panagariya
2.
Members: Two (2)
Full-time: economist Bibek Debroy and former DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat
3.
Part-time members:
Maximum of two from leading universities research organizations and other
relevant institutions in an ex-officio capacity. Part-time members will be on a
rotational basis
4.
Ex Officio members:
Maximum of four members of the Union Council of Ministers to be nominated by
the Prime Minister
5.
Chief Executive Officer:
To be appointed by the Prime Minister for a fixed tenure, in the rank of
Secretary to the Government of India.Sindhushree khullar appointed as the Chief
Executive Officer.
6.
Secretariat as deemed
necessary.