Lok Sabha Question No. 1933 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-03
Subject: Establishment of NITI Aayog
Ministry: PLANNING
Asked by: P.R. Natarajan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PLANNING

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1933 TO BE ANSWERED ON 03.07.2019

## ESTABLISHMENT OF NITI AAYOG

## 1933    SHRI P.R. NATARAJAN

Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:

- (a) the objective behind the Establishment of NITI Aayog;
- (b) whether it is different from Planning Commission;
- (c) if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the achievements of NITI Aayog so far ?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

(RAO INDERJIT SINGH)

(a) to (d) : The Government has replaced Planning Commission with a new institution named NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) by issuing a Gazette Notification of Cabinet Secretariat Resolution on 1 st January, 2015. A copy of the Resolution is annexed at Annexure-I

As per the resolution, 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' which the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers can 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 like-minded 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.

The financial year 2016-17 was the terminal year of 12 th Five Year Plan. It was decided to  discontinue  the  system  of  five-year  Plans  beyond  March,  2017.  Government  of  India  has decided to formulate:

(i) a seven year strategy for achievement of the national development agenda from 2017-18 to 2023-24, implementable policy and action as a part of 'National Development  Agenda' with a mid-term review after 3 years i.e. the year ending March 2020, and

(ii)  a  three-year  Action  Plan  for  2017-18  to  2019-20  based  on  the  predictability  of  resources during the currency of 14th Finance Commission Award period. The three year Action Agenda has  been  prepared  which  was  unveiled  by  the  Finance  Minister  along  with  Minister  of  State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan on 24th August, 2017  &  the  'Strategy  for  New  India  @  75'  document  was  released  by  NITI  Aayog  on  19 th December,  2018.  The  achievements  of  goals  of  NITI  Aayog  since  its  inception  are  given  at Annexure II.

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ANNEXURE-I

## Annexure to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1933, due for answer on 03.07.2019, raised by SHRI P.R NATARAJANA regarding 'ESTABLISHMENT OF NITI AAYOG'

## ANNEXURE-II

## Annexure to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1933, due for answer on 03.07.2019,

## raised by SHRI P.R NATARAJANA regarding 'ESTABLISHMENT OF NITI AAYOG' Major Achievements of NITI Aayog since its inception

NITI Aayog, established in January 2015, as a successor to the Planning Commission, is one of Indian democracy's youngest institutions. As a dedicated Think Tank of the Government, NITI Aayog is expected to carry out this 'directional' role, strategically charting the future of the  nation,  through  specialized  inputs  and  with  active  involvement  of  States.  It  fosters cooperative  federalism  through  structured  support  and  policy  guidance  to  the  States  on  a continuous basis.

NITI Aayog, in its fifth year, continues the work of transforming the policy making arena and move towards a resurgent India. The Some of its key achievements in this direction are detailed hereunder:

1. Strategy for New India @75: In a departure from the six-decade old practice of 5 year and  annual  plans,  NITI  Aayog  launched  the  3  year  action  plan,  the  7  year  strategy document  envisioning  New  India  by  2022,  and  is  working  on  the  15  year  vision document. This ensures better alignment of development strategy with the fast-changing reality  of  our  country  by  bringing  in  innovation,  enterprise  and  efficient  management together  at  the  core  of  policy  formulation  to  achieve  the  twin  aims  of  economic transformation and inclusive growth. NITI has defined clear objectives to be achieved and made policy recommendations covering areas of drivers of growth, infrastructure, inclusion and governance.
2. Aspirational  District  Programme: The  on-going  'Aspirational  district  Programme launched by NITI Aayog under which 112 backward districts in 27 States have been taken up for rapid transformation in key sectors has emerged as an innovative platform for  accelerating  development  in  difficult  areas.  Launched  on  January  5,  2018  by  the Hon'ble  Prime  Minister  of  India,  districts  are  competing  among  each  other  in  49 indicators to excel in provision of public services that affects quality of life as well as economic  productivity  of  common  citizens.    This  unique  initiative  has  been  fully supported  by  the  Central  Ministries  and  the  State  Governments.    Due  to  such  team efforts,  districts  have  made  significant  progress  in  key  sectors  viz.  Health,  nutrition, education,  agriculture  and  water  resources,  financial  inclusion  and  skill  development and creation of basic infrastructure.

Since progress in these sectors is closely related to attainment of SDGs, this initiative has  emerged  as  an  important  programme  to  serve  the  twin  objective  of  inclusive development and attainment of SDGs.

3. Sustainable  Development  Goals :  With  the  objective  of  monitoring  the  progress  of SDGs  in  the  country,  NITI  took  the  lead  in  developing  the  SDG  India  index  & Dashboard  in  2018,  which  comprehensively  documents  and  measures  the  progress made  by  States/UTs  towards  various  SDG  targets  by  ranking  them  on  key  SDG indicators across the Global Goals. This index aligns the 17 SDGs with our National Development  Agenda  and  provides  the  first  holistic  strategy  to  measure  progress  on socio-economic  environmental  parameters  of  development.  The  SDG  India  Index, which is  the  first  baseline  report  on  SDGs  in  the  country,  has  enabled  States/UTs  to benchmark their progress relative to others and identify priority areas. The consultations for the second version of the SDG Index are underway.
4. Poshan Abhiyaan - The National Nutrition Mission and the Poshan Abhiyan, launched in  2018,  India's  flagship  programme  to  improve  nutritional  outcomes  for  children, women and mothers, through a multi-pronged strategy of inter-sectoral convergence for intensified  service  delivery,  real-time  monitoring  of  nutritional  status  of  women  and children, and creating a Jan Andolan to raise awareness and synergize efforts, is being effectively steered by NITI Aayog with all key stakeholders.

The activities in Poshan Abhiyan focus on Social Behavioural Change and Communication (SBCC). The broad themes are: antenatal care, optimal breastfeeding (early  and  exclusive),  complementary  feeding,  anaemia,  growth  monitoring,  girls'  education,  diet,  right  age  of  marriage,  hygiene  and  sanitation,  eating  healthy  -  food fortification. A dedicated Poshan Maah has given a major impetus to the Abhiyaan as 30.6  Crore  people  were  reached  in  30  days.  Additionally,  on  similar  lines  Poshan Pakhwada was observed during 8 th March, 2019 to 22 nd March, 2019 to mark the one year  anniversary  of  POSHAN  Abhiyaan.  Poshan  Pakhwada  has  been  successful  in taking forward the Jan Andolan by reaching around 45 crore people.

5. Atal  Innovation  Mission :  Furthering  its  mandate  of  creating  a  robust  knowledge, innovation  and  entrepreneurial  support  system  through  a  collaborative  community  of experts and practitioners, NITI's flagship initiative- AIM continues to spread its work towards  establishing  an  integrated  chain  of  innovation-incubation-entrepreneurship  at school,  university  and  industry  levels,  by  linking  NGOs,  venture  capital  and  private

industries  in  the  process.  AIM,  with  3020  Atal  Tinkering  Labs  being  established  at school  level,  47  Atal  Incubators  at  university  and  institutional  levels,  24  Atal  India Challenges  launched  to  stimulate  product  innovation,  is  fast  creating  a  collaborative network of institutions-mentors-industry in the country.

6. Artificial Intelligence: Pursuant to the announcement made in the Budget 2018 -2019 and  recognizing  the  potential  of  Artificial  Intelligence  to  transform  economies  along with  the  need  to  strategize  technology  to  deliver  better  services  to  its  1.33  billion citizens,  NITI  worked  on  its  mandate  and  released  a  discussion  paper  on  National Strategy for AI in 2018.  Titled 'AI For All', the strategy focuses on sectors with the greatest need for public goods such as agriculture, healthcare, education, smart cities, and mobility. Moreover, the role of the government in promoting these solutions has been clearly delineated in terms of promoting research, skilling, accelerating adoption of AI and the role of ethics in AI. Projects are being pursued for promoting dynamic content in regional Indian languages, precision agriculture and developing the world's largest bio-bank of cancer images. This roadmap aims to leverage the transformational effects  of  AI,  block-chain  and  Internet  of  Things  in  three  key  sectors  of  Education, Healthcare and Agriculture.
7. Driving  Clean  Mobility: Working  on  India's commitment  to  move  from  the conventional  mobility  model  to  a  sustainable  and  seamless  mobility  ecosystem, 'MOVE' - India's first Global Mobility Summit was organized by NITI Aayog so as to bring focus on transforming the mobility paradigm in India.

To  ensure  a  seamless  travel  across  metros  and  other  transport  systems  in  addition  to retail  shopping  and  purchases,  the  Government  of  India  came  out  with  the  National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) Program and the One Nation One Card was launched in 2019. NITI Aayog played a key role in finalising modalities of NCMC architecture through Inter Ministerial and Industry consultation meetings.

In addition, Government has undertaken a series of measures to move towards electric vehicles, such as developing the Charging Infrastructure Policy which permits private charging  at  residences  /  offices,  regulatory  amendments  to  the  Motor  Vehicles  Act, while  taking  steps  to  promote  manufacturing  of  lithium-ion  batteries.  The  National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage, housed in NITI Aayog, has been constituted to launch concerted efforts to spearhead electric mobility by recommending key policy guidelines to drive clean, connected, shared, sustainable and holistic mobility and storage initiatives.

8. The Challenge of Water: Water and its management is one of our biggest challenges. Currently, 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress. Millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat due to the crisis. Several States have taken path breaking measures to efficiently manage water. In view of the limitations on availability of water resources and using the increasing demand for water, sustainable management of water resources has acquired  critical  importance.  The  Composite Water Management  Index developed by NITI Aayog challenges States/UTs to improve their water management techniques as this is directly linked to agricultural prosperity.
9. Competitive Federalism : NITI was constituted to actualize the goal of competitive and cooperative  federalism  among  States.  To  drive  the  spirit  of  competition  among States/UTs, NITI has sought to establish a structure of evidence based policy making by devising robust mechanism for monitoring and evaluation of outcomes in key sectors of governance.  The  Output-Outcome  Monitoring  Framework  developed  by  NITI  Aayog has created a paradigm shift from outlays to outcome based governance for improved evidence-based policy-making. Focusing on effective management and better outcomes backed by data analysis, NITI has developed a number of social indices and dashboards. The Water, Health and SDG indices developed by NITI Aayog rank States/UTs in the spirit of competitive federalism.

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