NITI Aayog is a government of India policy Think tank established in 2015 after dissolving the planning commission. “Nithi” means policy and “Aayog” means commission. It will seek to provide a critical directional and strategic input into the development process. It will emerge as a “think tank” that will provide central and state government with relevant strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy. It will also put an end to slow and delayed implementation of policy, by nurturing better inter ministry and inter state coordination. It develops a shared vision of national development priorities and promote cooperative federalism, recognizing that strong states make strong nation.
Structure of NITI Aayog:
-Prime minister as chairperson
-Governing council comprising the chief ministers of all states and union territories with legislatures and lieutenant governors of all other UTs.
-Regional council will be formed to address specific issues impacting specific states or a region.
-Experts, specialists and practitioners with relevant domain knowledge as special invitees nominated by prime minister.
-Full time organizational framework comprising: Vice chairperson, two full time members, two part time members, ex officio members and chief executive officer
-Secretariat
Objectives of NITI Aayog
-An administration paradigm in which government is the enabler.
-Progress from food security to focus on a mix of agricultural production
-Ensure that India is an active player in the global commons.
-Ensure that the middleclass remains engaged and its potential is fully realized
-Leverage India’s pool of human resource
-Incorporate the significant geo economic and geo political strength of 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 failures in governance.
Functions of NITI Aayog
-Cooperative and competitive federalism
It enables to have active participation of states in the formulation of national policy
-Shared national agenda
Evolve a shared vision of national development, priorities and strategies with the active involvement of states
-State’s best friend at the center
Support states in addressing their own challenges, building on strengths and comparative advantage
-Decentralized planning
Restructure the planning process into a bottom-up model
-Vision and scenario planning
Design medium and long-term strategic framework across all sectors. Identify critical gaps and harness untapped potentialities.
-Domain strategies
Build a repository of specialized domain expertise to assist central and state government.
-Network of expertise
Inculcate mainstream external ideas and expertise into government policies
-Knowledge and innovation hub
It aims to be an accumulator as well as disseminator of research and best practices on good governance
-Harmonization
Facilitate harmonization of actions across different layers of government through communication and coordination
-Conflict resolution
Provide a platform for mutual resolution of inter sectoral, inter departmental, inter state as well as center state issues.
-Coordinating interface with the world
Be the nodal point for strategically harnessing global expertise and resources from multilateral platforms
-Internal consultancy
Offer an inter consultancy function to central and state governments on policy and program design
-Capacity building
Enable capacity building and technology upgradation across government
-Monitoring and evaluation
Monitor the implementation of policies and programs and evaluate their impact through tracking for performance and evaluation.
