National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog is a policy think-tank established on 1st january, 2015 by the Govt of India as a replacement of Planning Commission. In the PM’s maiden Independence Day speech on 15th august,2014 , PM Modi announced the scrapping off of Planning Commission and the establishment of a new institution called NITI Aayog in its place.
NITI Aayog will provide Governments at the central and state levels with relevant strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy, this includes matters of national and international importance on the economic front, the adaptation of best practises from around the world and moulding it to the indian context, the infusion of new policy ideas and specific issue-based support. It has been made to cater to the needs of the changing requirements of our country and to take care of the “strategy of governance”.
MEMBERS:-
Chairman : PM Modi
Vice chairman: Arvind Panagariya
Full-Time Members:
Bibek Debroy
V.K. Saraswat
Prof. Ramesh Chand
Ex-officio Members:
Rajnath Singh, Minister of Home Affairs
Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance; Minister of Corporate Affairs; and Minister of Information and Broadcasting
Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Railways
Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of Agriculture
Special Invitees:
Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways; and Minister of Shipping
Thawar Chand Gehlot,Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment
Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister of Human Resource Development.
Chief Executive Officer:
Amitabh Kant
NITI Aayog has been made with the aim of bridging the gap between centre and state govts and to encourage cooperative competitive federalism. Unlike the Planning Commission, NITI Aayog fosters involvement and participation of state govts in the economic and policy making process in a bottom-up approach. Thus it has a Governing Council consisting of the chief ministers of all states and UTs of India. Further, chief ministers have been divided into sub groups under the auspices of the NITI Aayog to advise the PM on Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), Skill Development and Swachh Bharat. NITI Aayog also formed two task forces, one on Poverty Elimination and the other on Agricultural Development, with parallel task forces formed in each state and Union Territory on the two subjects.
The NITI Aayog seeks to put an end to slow and tardy implementation of policy, by fostering better Inter-Ministry coordination and better Centre-State coordination. It aims to evolve a shared vision of national development priorities, and foster cooperative federalism, recognizing that strong states make a strong nation.
Objectives of NITI Aayog:-
- fostering co-operative federalism-active involvement of states
- formulation of plans at village level, aggregation at higher levels
- special attention to sections at risk of not benefitting adequately from economic progress
- economic policy that incorporates national security interests
- feedback for constant innovative improvements
- partnerships with national and international think tanks
- creating a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system
- platform for resolution of intersectional and inter departmental issues
- state of the art resource centre for research on good governance
- focus on technology upgradation and capacity building
Initiatives by NITI Aayog :-
SETU : Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation or SETU is meant to support all aspects of start-up businesses, and other self-employment activities, particularly in technology-driven areas. It has been alloted RS 1000 crore by the previous budget. It has been specifically launched to boost breakthrough technical start-ups by bringing ideas into real-time business. It will be set-up as a techno-financial, incubation and facilitation programme to give support and encouragement to young start-ups and other self-employment technology-intensive ideas. The prime motive is to engage the young population-the largest demographic segment in India, in meaningful work and to put their ideas into motion and gradually convert them into scalable businesses. At present India has fourth largest start-up ecosystem in the world after US, UK and Israel. SETU aims at furthering this.
AIM : Atal Innovation Mission or AIM is an attempt to foster innovation and scientific research in the country. Named after prior PM of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it would be an innovation promotion platform involving academics, entrepreneurs, and researchers. The platform for which an initial sum of Rs 150 crore has been earmarked by the government will draw upon national and international experiences to foster a culture of innovation and Research and Development.
The AIM would have four working groups to execute the different functions to perform various activities related to innovation.
The first group, Idea and Networks, will institutionalise collaboration among national and international academia and civil society.
The second group, Angel Funds will be a fund of funds and will ensure effective venture capital and angel funding for innovations and ideas.
The third group, Governance Innovation, will be responsible for bringing leading international practices of good governance and encourage intrinsic innovation for solving daily governance challenges.
Finally, the Missions (or Special Initiatives) group will take ideas from concept to implementation, with targeted outcome based approach with support from all levels of governance.
