NITI Aayog
(National Institution for Transforming India), Government of India
Designation Name
Chairperson Shri Narendra Modi
The National Institution for Transforming India, also called NITI Aayog, was formed via a
resolution of the Union Cabinet on January 1, 2015. NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘Think
Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. While
designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India,
NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States.
The Government of India, in keeping with its reform agenda, constituted the NITI Aayog to
replace the Planning Commission instituted in 1950. This was done in order to better serve
the needs and aspirations of the people of India. An important evolutionary change from the
past, NITI Aayog acts as the essential platform of the Government of India to bring States to
act together in national interest, and thereby fosters Cooperative Federalism ( "A government
in which power is divided between state and national levels").
At the core of NITI Aayog’s creation are two hubs – Team India Hub and the Knowledge
and Innovation Hub. The Team India Hub leads the engagement of states with the Central
government, while the Knowledge and Innovation Hub builds NITI’s think-tank capabilities.
These hubs reflect the two key tasks of the Aayog.
NITI Aayog is also developing itself as a State of the Art Resource Centre, with the necessary
resources, knowledge and skills, that will enable it
to act with speed,
promote research and innovation,
provide strategic policy vision for the government,
and deal with contingent issues.
MEMBERS OF NITI AAYOG
It was established in 2015, by the NDA government, to replace the Planning
Commission which followed a top-down model. The Prime Minister is the chairman. The
permanent members of the governing council are all the state Chief Ministers. In addition,
temporary members are selected from leading universities and research institutions. These
members include a chief executive officer, four ex-official members and two part-time
members.
The NITI Aayog will comprise the following:
a. Prime Minister of India as the Chairperson
b. Governing Council comprising the Chief Ministers of all the States and Lt. Governors of
Union Territories
c. 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 comprise 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
d. Experts, specialists and practitioners with relevant domain knowledge as special invitees
nominated by the Prime Minister
e. The full-time organizational framework will comprise of, in addition to the Prime Minister
as the Chairperson:
i. Vice-Chairperson: To be appointed by the Prime Minister
ii. Members: Full-time
iii. Part-time members: Maximum of 2 from leading universities research organizations and
other relevant institutions in an ex-officio capacity. Part time members will be on a rotational
basis
iv. Ex Officio(Holding a position or membership due to the power or influence of one's
office, and not by election or appointment.) members: Maximum of 4 members of the Union
Council of Ministers to be nominated by the Prime Minister
v. Chief Executive Officer: To be appointed by the Prime Minister for a fixed tenure, in the
rank of Secretary to the Government of India
vi. Secretariat as deemed necessary
14. Swami Vivekananda said 'Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think it, dream
of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that
idea and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success." Through its
commitment to a cooperative federalism, promotion of citizen engagement, egalitarian access
to opportunity, participative and adaptive governance and increasing use of technology, the
NITI Aayog will seek to provide a critical directional and strategic input into the
development process. This, along with being the incubator of ideas for development, will be
the core mission of NITI Aayog.
The NITI Aayog will work towards the following objectives:
a. 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 vision of the NITI Aayog
will then provide a framework 'national agenda' for the Prime Minister and the Chief
Ministers to provide impetus to
b. To foster cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms
with the States on a continuous basis, recognizing that strong States make a strong nation
c. To develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these
progressively at higher levels of government
d. To ensure, on areas that are specifically referred to it, that the interests of national security
are incorporated in economic strategy and policy
e. To pay special attention to the sections of our society that may be at risk of not benefitting
adequately from economic progress
f. To design strategic and long term policy and programme frameworks and initiatives, and
monitor their progress and their efficacy. The lessons learnt through monitoring and feedback
will be used for making innovative improvements, including necessary mid-course
corrections
g. To provide advice and encourage partnerships between key stakeholders and national and
international likeminded Think Tanks, as well as educational and policy research institutions
h. To create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a
collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other
partners
i. To offer a platform for resolution of inter-sectoral and inter-departmental issues in order to
accelerate the implementation of the development agenda
j . To maintain a state-of-the-art Resource Centre, be a repository of research on good
governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development as well as help their
dissemination to stake-holders
k. To actively monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and initiatives,
including the identification of the needed resources so as to strengthen the probability of
success and scope of delivery
L. To focus on technology upgradation and capacity building for implementation of
programmes and initiatives
m. To undertake other activities as may be necessary in order to further the execution of the
national development agenda, and the objectives mentioned above
Functions SAME AS OBJECTIVES
NITI AAYOG (NATIONAL INSTITUTION FOR TRANSFORMING INDIA)
1. NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India):
(i) 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, recognizing that strong States make a strong nation
To develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these
progressively at higher levels of government
To ensure, on areas that are specifically referred to it, that the interests of national security are
incorporated in economic strategy and policy
To pay special attention to the sections of our society that may be at risk of not benefiting
adequately from economic progress
To design strategic and long term policy and programme frameworks and initiatives, and
monitor their progress and their efficacy. The lessons learnt through monitoring and feedback
will be used for making innovative improvements, including necessary mid-course
corrections
To provide advice and encourage partnerships between key stakeholders and national and
international like-minded Think tanks, as well as educational and policy research institutions.
To create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a
collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other
partners.
To offer a platform for resolution of inter-sectoral and inter departmental issues in order to
accelerate the implementation of the development agenda.
To maintain a state-of-the-art Resource Centre, be a repository of research on good
governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development as well as help their
dissemination to stake-holders
To actively monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and initiatives,
including the identification of the needed resources so as to strengthen the probability of
success and scope of delivery
To focus on technology upgradation and capacity building for implementation of
programmes and initiatives
To undertake other activities as may be necessary in order to further the execution of the
national development agenda, and the objectives mentioned above
WHY NITI AAYOG??
On 1 January 2015 a Cabinet resolution was passed to replace the Planning Commission with
the newly formed NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). The Union
Government of India announced the formation of NITI Aayog on 1 January 2015. The first
meeting of NITI Aayog was chaired by Narendra Modi on 8 February 2015.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made the following observation on the necessity of creating
NITI Aayog, "The 65 year-old Planning Commission had become a redundant organisation.
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.
NEW INITIATIVES
1. NITI Lectures
NITI Aayog has started a new initiative on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi called NITI Lectures: Transforming India.
The aim of this initiative is to invite globally reputed policy makers, experts, administrators
to India to share their knowledge, expertise, experience in policy making and good
governance with Indian counterparts.
This initiative will be a series of lectures started with first lecture delivered by Deputy Prime
Minister of Singapore Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam. He delivered lecture on subject called
"India and the Global Economy" at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
The Prime Minister spoke about the idea behind this lecture series and stated that his vision
for India is rapid transformation, not gradual evolution.
2. STATE STATISTICS HANDBOOK
On 31 August 2017, NITI Aayog developed a State Statistics Handbook that consolidates key
statistics across sectors for every Indian State/UT. While the State data on crucial indicators
is currently uneven across different sources, this handbook provides a one-stop database of
important State statistics.
3. 'IndiaChain'
NITI Aayog has taken initiative on Block chain usages in E-governance (Blockchain is a
distributed database existing on multiple computers at the same time. It is constantly growing
as new sets of recordings, or 'blocks', are added to it. Each block contains a timestamp and a
link to the previous block, so they actually form a chain) and has conceptualized the tech
stack as 'IndiaChain'. IndiaChain is the name given to Niti Aayog's ambitious project to
develop a nation-wide blockchain network. "Artificial intelligence, blockchain and big data
hold potential to take India to new heights" the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the
world economic forum. The vision is to link IndiaChain with IndiaStack, the digital
infrastructure that forms the backbone of the Aadhar project. The NITI Aayog initiative on
the blockchain system will enforce contracts quicker, prevent fraudulent transactions, and
help farmers through the efficient disbursement of subsidies. This project is the first step to a
larger system of record keeping and public good disbursement.
4. NITI Aayog partners with WhatsApp to promote women entrepreneurs
NITI Aayog and Facebook-owned WhatsApp, under the aegis of its Women
Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), have announced a partnership to support the
growth of a robust ecosystem to promote women entrepreneurs in India.
WhatsApp, in collaboration with NITI Aayog, will announce an annual calendar of
events aimed at capacity building of women entrepreneurs and develop specific
programmes aimed at addressing challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. The
initiative would target the registered users of WEP.
WhatsApp will also partner with the Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards
2019, flagship initiative of NITI Aayog. WhatsApp has decided to provide support
amounting to $100,000 to WTI winners.
WhatsApp’s evolution from everyday messenger to a business enabler is helping
bring digital empowerment to Indian entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs contribute
significantly to the growing digital economy in India, and partnerships between
private companies and public sector help accelerate digital inclusion and give much
needed access to funding so more women can achieve their business potential.
Challenges
To prove its mettle in policy formulation, the NITI Aayog needs to prioritize from the long
list of 13 objectives with clear understanding of the difference in policy, planning and
strategy.
To build the trust, faith and confidence more than the planning commission, NITI Aayog
needs freedom of various kinds with budgetary provisions, as the higher rate of increase in
capital expenditure can remove infrastructural deficits at all levels of operation in the
economy.
Way Forward
Bureaucratic inertia need to be shaken, specializing it and fixing the accountability on basis
of performance.
NITI Aayog could emerge as an agent of change over time and contribute to the
government’s agenda of improving governance and implementing innovative measures for
better delivery of public services.
NITI Aayog continues to be representative of efficient, transparent, innovative and
accountable governance system in country with distinguished work ethics.
Difference between NITI AAYOG AND PLANNING COMMISION
Planning
NITI Aayog
Commission
It served as extra-
It serves as an advisory Think Tank. constitutional
body.
It draws membership from a wider It had limited
expertise. expertise.
States participated
It serves in spirit of Cooperative
as spectators in
Federalism as states are equal
annual plan
partners.
meetings.
It focuses upon ‘Bottom-Up’ It followed a ‘Top-
approach of Planning. Down’ approach.
Imposed policies
on states and tied
It does not possess mandate to
allocation of funds
impose policies.
with projects it
approved.
It had powers to
It does not have powers to allocate
allocate funds to
funds, which are vested in Finance
ministries and
Minister.
state governments.
2018: NITI Aayog is conceived to play a role distinct form planning commission that it has
replaced. Elucidate referring to the functions and role of NITI Aayog.
2017: What are the objectives of Planning in India? Do you think that planning has become
redundant in the present economic context of India and therefore setting up NITI Aayog in
place of Planning commission is an appropriate move?
