NITI Aayog

• The institution will serve as a ‘think tank’ of the government. It will

provide governments at the Central and State levels with relevant
strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of
policy. Instead of being in the controlling seat, is going to provide a
direction. It is going to be an ‘enabler’ instead of a ‘provider of first
and last resort’.
• 'NITI Aayog' or 'National Institution for Transforming India Aayog' is
the replacement of Planning Commission of India, marking the end of
the Nehruvian institution that pioneered India’s five-year planned
development approach.
What’s different?
• The primary job of the new body—described as a Think-Tank—will be
to advise the government on social and economic issues. Unlike the
Nehruvian plan panel, the new body will not have the power to
disburse funds to central ministries and state governments.
• NITI is the acronym for National Institution for Transforming India.
• It was formed on 1st Jan 2015 & the first meeting was formed on 08th Feb
2015.
• It is a govt. of India policy think-tank established by BJP govt. to replace the
PLANNING COMMISION which followed the top-down model.
• Its main objective is to foster involvement and participation in the
economic policy making process by the State Govts. Of India by
implementing co-operative federalism.
• Prime Minister Shri NARENDRA MODI is its ex officio chairman, RAJIV
KUMAR is the vice-chairman & its CEO is AMITABH KANT
Why NITI Aayog is formed?
• To work for national development by prior involvement of the existing
STATES having national objectives.
• To foster CO-OPERATIVE FEDERALISM.
• To formulate credible plans at village levels as well as higher levels.
• To incorporate national security.
• To help the economically backward states.
• To build a connection between the stake holders, think-tanks and
educational institution to support innovations and entrepreneurship.
• To focus on technology upgradation & implement programs and initiatives
for the development of nation.
Objective
• To evolve a shared vision of national development priorities, sectors
and strategies with the active involvement of states in the light of
national objectives.
The Aayog will-
• Seek to provide a critical directional and strategic input into the
governance process.
• Develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village
leveland aggregate these progressively at higher levels of
government.
• Ensure, on areas that are specifically referred to it, that the interests
of national security are incorporated in economic strategy and policy.
The Aayog will-
• Pay special attention to the sections of the society that may be at risk
of not benefiting adequately from economic progress.
• Through commitment to a cooperative federalism - promotion of
citizen engagement, egalitarian access to opportunity, participative
and adaptive governance, increasing use of the technology.
• It will leverage India's pool of entrepreneurial, scientific and
intellectual human capital.
Advantages of “NITI AAYOG” over “I NDIAN
PLANNING COMMISSION” .
Impact on INDIAN PLANNING after NI TI
AAYOG was formed
• The FIVE-YEAR plans were replaced by 15 years old vision document
consisting a 7 year strategy (2017-20) which was divided into 7 parts with
different actions to execute for economic growth.
• The GDP is expected to rise 3 times in 15 years i.e from 137 lakhs to 467
lakhs.
• There was greater flexibility in communication process between the state
govts. and central govts.
• India can now achieve broader social objectives to meet UNDP’s 2030
sustainable goals comprised of as many as 300 action points covering wide
range of sectors.
• State’s share in central taxes increased from 32% to 42%.
• The economy now have INTERNAL SECURITY which wasn’t there in five-
years plans.
Composition of NITI Aayog
FUNCTIONS OF NITI.
• . Cooperative and Competitive Federalism: Be the primary platform
for operationalising Cooperative Federalism; enabling States to have
active participation in the formulation of national policy, as well as
achieving timebound implementation of quantitative and qualitative
targets through the combined authority of the Prime Minister and
Chief Ministers.
• Shared National Agenda: Evolve a shared vision of national
development priorities and strategies, with the active involvement of
States. This will provide the framework ‘national agenda’ for the
Prime Minister and Chief Ministers to implement.
• State’s Best Friend at the Centre: Support States in addressing their
own challenges, as well as building on strengths and comparative
advantages. This will be through various means, such as coordinating
with Ministries, championing their ideas at the centre, providing
consultancy support and building capacity.
• Decentralized Planning: Restructure the planning process into a
bottomup model, empowering States, and guiding them to further
empower local governments; in developing mechanisms to formulate
credible plans at the village level, which are progressively aggregated
up the higher levels of government.
• Vision & Scenario Planning: Design medium and long-term strategic
frameworks of the big picture vision of India’s future - across
schemes, sectors, regions and time; factoring in all possible
alternative assumptions and counterfactuals. These would be the
drivers of the national reforms agenda, especially focused on
identifying critical gaps and harnessing untapped potentialities.
• Domain Strategies: Build a repository of specialized domain expertise,
both sectoral and cross-sectoral; to assist Ministries of the Central
and State governments in their respective development planning as
well problem solving needs. This will especially enable the imbibing of
good governance best practices, both national as well as
international; especially with regards to structural reform.
• . Network of Expertise: Main-stream external ideas and expertise into
government policies and programmes through a collaborative
community of national and international experts, practitioners and
other partners. This would entail being Government’s link to the
outside world, roping in academia (universities, think tanks and
research institutions), private sector expertise, and the people at
large, for close involvement in the policy making process.
• Knowledge and Innovation hub: Be an accumulator as well as
disseminator of research and best practices on good governance,
through a state-of-the-art Resource Centre which identifies, analyses,
shares and facilitates replication of the same.
• . Conflict Resolution: Provide a platform for mutual resolution of
intersectoral, inter-departmental, inter-state as well as centre-state
issues; facilitating consensus acceptable and beneficial to all, to bring
about clarity and speed in execution.
• Capacity building: Enable capacity building and technology up-
gradation across government, benchmarking with latest global trends
and providing managerial and technical knowhow.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
• NITI Aayog will monitor, coordinate and ensure implementation of the
globally accepted Sustainable Development Goals. We have been
nominated as the nodal body that will bring the 17 development
goals into action across India. The SDGs are aimed at eradicating all
forms of poverty.