Hello Friends, In this post I would shareEverything About Niti Aayog.
What is Niti Aayog: on 1st january National Institution for Transforming India Aayog is a policy think-tank of Government of Indiaaims to involve the states in economic policy-making in India. It will be providing strategic and technical advice to the central and the state governments. The NITI Aayog, which will replace the Planning Commission.
What is Planning Commission:After India gained independence, a formal model of planning was adopted, and accordingly the Planning Commission, reporting directly to the Prime Minister of India was established on 15 March 1950, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as the Chairman. The Planning Commission was an institution in the Government of India, which formulated India‘s Five-Year Plans, among other functions.
Differences between Planning Commission and Niti Aayog:
| Niti Aayog | Yojana Aayog | |
| Financial clout | To be an advisory body, or a think-tank. The powers to allocate funds might be vested in the finance ministry. | Enjoyed the powers to allocate funds to ministries and state governments |
| States’ role | State governments are expected to play a more significant role than they did in the Planning Commission | States’ role was limited to the National Development Council and annual interaction during Plan meetings |
| Member secretary | to be known at the CEO and to be appointed by the prime minister | Secretaries or member secretaries were appointment through the usual process |
| Organization | New posts of CEO, of secretary rank, and Vice-Chairperson. Will also have five full-time members and two part-time members. Four cabinet ministers will serve as ex-officio members. | Had deputy chairperson, a member secretary and full-time members. |
| Nature | NITI is a think-tank and does not have the power to impose policies | Imposed policies on states and tied allocation of funds with projects it approved. |
| Full-time members | The number of full-time members could be fewer than Planning Commission | The last Commission had eight full-time members |
| Allocation | No power to allocate funds | Had power to decide allocation of government funds for various programmes at national and state levels. |
- Prime Minister of India as the Chairperson
- Governing Council comprising the Chief Ministers of all the States and Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories.
- Full-time organizational framework (in addition to Prime Minister as the Chairperson) comprising
- Vice-Chairperson
- Members: Two (2) Full-time
- Part-time members: Maximum of two from leading universities research organizations. Part-time members will be on a rotational basis
- Ex Officio members: Maximum of four members of the Union Council of Ministers to be nominated by the Prime Minister
- Chief Executive Officer: To be appointed by the Prime Minister for a fixed tenure, in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.
- Secretariat as deemed necessary
- Chairperson: Prime Minister Narendra Modi
- CEO: Sindhushree Khullar
- Vice Chairperson: Arvind Panagariya
- Ex-Officio Members: Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Suresh Prabhu and Radha Mohan Singh
- Special Invitees: Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Zubin Irani and Thawar Chand Gehlot
- Full-time Members: Bibek Debroy & V. K. Saraswat.
- Governing Council: All Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories.
Key highlights of first meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog:Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has constituted three sub-groups of Chief Ministers within National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog.
It was announced by PM while he was chairing the first meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog in New Delhi.
- First sub-group- It will study the 66 centrally-sponsored schemes and recommend which schemes should continue, which should be transferred to states, and which to discontinue.
- Second sub-group- It will focus on skill development and creation of skilled manpower within states.
- Third sub-group- It will decide on the institutional mechanisms to be evolved for Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, so that cleanliness becomes a part of life in perpetuity.
- In this meeting, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and Lt Governors of Andaman and Nicobar and Delhi, and the Chief Ministers of the rest of the states participated.
- PM has asked all the states to create two task forces under the aegis of the NITI Aayog, one to focus on poverty alleviation, and the other to focus on future development of agriculture in the states.
- First meeting also focused on issues related to growth, investment, decentralisation and poverty alleviation.
- PM also stressed on the role of the states and emphasised how Jan Dhan Yojana and Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan had become successful with cooperation of the states.