Niti Aayog
• The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), was formed via a resolution of the Union Cabinet on January 1, 2015.
• It has emerged as the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India fostering the spirit of cooperative federalism.
The key functions which refer to ‘Cooperative Federalism’ are:
To evolve a shared vision of national development priorities, sectors and strategies with the active involvement of States in the light of national objectives.
To foster cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms with the States on a continuous basis, recognising that strong States make a strong nation.
• Its other objectives include:
o To develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government.
o To pay special attention to the sections of our society that may be at risk of not benefitting adequately from economic progress.
To design strategic and long-term policy frameworks and monitor their progress and their efficacy.
To create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other partners.
Significance of Niti Aayog
• Cooperative federalism: State governments have been given prominence in the functioning of NITI Aayog and it has also expedited the resolution of issues between the central ministries and state and UTs.
• Competitive federalism: States are competing to perform better in indices developed by NITI Ayog which measures incremental annual outcomes in critical social sectors such as Digital Transformation Index, innovation index, health index.
• Focus on inclusive development: It started a special initiative focusing on transformation of 115 aspirational districts. It is also the nodal body for monitoring implementation of Sustainable Development Goals
• Evidence based policy making: It focuses on policy formulation based on adequate data such as it brought out three-year action agenda, development of composite water management index, promotion of GIS based planning etc.
• Economic Reforms: It brought out policy paper on reforms in APMC Act, rejuvenating fertilizer sector, doubling farmer's income, Model Act on Agricultural Land Leasing etc.
• Knowledge and Innovation hub: It acts as a Repository of information as it engages in Compiling, transmitting and emulating best practices across states. It also launched Atal Innovation Mission and hosted Global Entrepreneurship Summit, 2017.
• Balanced regional development: such as focus on areas such as North East. For eg: NITI Forum for North East which aims to identify various constraints in the way of accelerated, inclusive and sustainable economic growth of the North Eastern Region (NER) is co-chaired by the Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog.
Challenges for NITI Aayog
• Overlapping functions: In discharging the assigned tasks, the Aayog overlaps with the Inter-State Council, which is a constitutional body, and the office of the cabinet secretary that at present strives to achieve inter-departmental coordination.
• Favor advance states: Its promotion of competitive federalism may work in favour of already advanced states to the detriment of others.
• Lack of statutory nature: It is established by executive resolution, thus, the chances of government interference is more.
• Lack of active actionable targets: It needs to take active measures to solve some of the challenges that India faces today such as job creations, increasing economic growth, etc. Even its three-year action agenda has too wide approach for imminent challenges.
• Limited focus on implementation: It doesn’t focus adequately on the practical aspects of its recommendations such as fixing accountability of bureaucrats, government-citizen interaction etc. which is core to several good ideas remaining on paper.
Conclusion
Moving beyond cooperative federalism it is now ‘competitive cooperative federalism’ that defines the relation between Centre and states as NITI Aayog puts onus on states to drive transformation in India. India is facing many challenges in its path to SDGs 2030. The central government has initiated many mission mode programs viz Smart City, Skill India, Swach Bharat, Housing and Electricity for All etc. Success of all these
depends on active cooperation and healthy competition among states and centre. NITI Ayog is poised to play the role of catalysts achieving this cooperation.
• It has a structure similar to the Planning Commission, but its functions will be limited to only acting as a policy think tank relieving it of the two more functions viz. formation of five year plans and the allocation of funds to the States.
• The major difference in approach to planning, between NITI Aayog and Planning Commission, is that the former will invite greater involvement of the states, while the latter took a top-down approach with a one-size-fits-all plan.
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