Highlights of initiatives under NITI Aayog
NITI
Ayog, The National Institution for Transforming India, was formed via a
resolution of the Union Cabinet on January 1, 2015. NITI Ayog has emerged as
the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India fostering the spirit
of cooperative federalism under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shri
Narendra Modi. Ever since its inception the institution has taken a series of
initiatives aimed at giving a push to the economy and transforming the lives of
millions across the country.
Following are the highlights of the initiatives
taken by NITI Ayog:
I.
Vision Document, Strategy & Action Agenda beyond
12th Five Year Plan: Replacing the Five
Year Plans beyond 31st March, 2017, NITI Aayog is in the process of
preparing the 15-year vision document keeping in view the social goals set and/
or proposed for a period of 15 years; A 7-year strategy document spanning
2017-18 to 2023-24 to convert the longer-term vision into implementable policy
and action as a part of a “National Development Agenda” is also being worked
upon. The 3-year Action Agenda for 2017-18 to 2019-20, aligned to the
predictability of financial resources during the 14th Finance
Commission Award period, has been completed and will be submitted before the
Hon’ble PM on April 23rd at the 3rd Governing Council
Meeting
II.
Reforms in Agriculture:
a.
Model Land Leasing Law
Taking
note of increasing incidents of leasing in and out of land and suboptimal use
of land with lesser number of cultivators, NITI Aayog has formulated a Model
Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016 to both recognize the rights of the tenant
and safeguard interest of landowners. A dedicated cell for land reforms was
also set up in NITI. Based on the model act, Madhya Pradesh has enacted
separate land leasing law and Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have modified their
land leasing laws. Some States, including Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,
are already at an advance stage of formulating legislations to enact their land
leasing laws for agriculture.
b.
Reforms of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act
NITI
Aayog consulted with the States on 21 October 2016 on three critical reforms –
(i)
Agricultural marketing reforms
(ii)
Felling and transit laws for tree
produce grown at private land
(iii)
Agricultural land leasing
Subsequently, Model APMC Act version 2 prepared.
States are being consulted to adopt APMC Act version 2.
c.
Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index
NITI
Aayog has developed the first ever ‘Agriculture Marketing and Farmer Friendly
Reforms Index’ to sensitise states about the need to undertake reforms in the
three key areas of Agriculture Market Reforms, Land Lease Reforms and Forestry
on Private Land (Felling and Transit of Trees). The index carries a score with
a minimum value “0” implying no reforms and maximum value “100” implying
complete reforms in the selected areas.
As
per NITI Aayog’s index, Maharashtra ranks highest in implementation of various
agricultural reforms. The State has implemented most of the marketing reforms
and offers the best environment for undertaking agri-business among all the
States and UTs. Gujarat ranks second with a score of 71.50 out of 100,
closely followed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Almost two third States have
not been able to reach even the halfway mark of reforms score, in the year
2016-17. The index aims to induce a healthy competition between States and
percolate best practices in implementing farmer-friendly reforms.
III.
Reforming Medical Education
A
committee chaired by Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog recommended scrapping of the
Medical Council of Indi and suggested a new body for regulating medical
education. The draft legislation for the proposed National Medical Commission
has been submitted to the Government for further necessary action.
IV.
Digital Payments Movement:
a.
An action plan on advocacy, awareness
and co-ordination of handholding efforts among general public, micro
enterprises and other stakeholders was prepared. Appropriate literature in
print and multimedia was prepared on the subject for widespread dissemination.
Presentations/ interactions were organized by NITI Aayog for training and
capacity building of various Ministries/Departments of Government of India,
representatives of State/UTs, Trade and Industry Bodies as well as all other
stakeholders.
b.
NITI Aayog also constituted a Committee
of Chief Ministers on Digital Payments on 30th November 2016 with Hon’ble Chief
Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, as the Convener to promote
transparency, financial inclusion and a healthy financial ecosystem
nationwide. The Committee submitted its interim report to Hon’ble Prime
Minister in January 2017.
c.
To incentivize the States/UTs for
promotion of digital transactions, Central assistance of Rs. 50 crore would be
provided to the districts for undertaking Information, Education and
Communication activities to bring 5 crore Jan Dhan accounts to digital
platform.
d.
Cashback and referral bonus schemes were
launched by Hon'ble Prime Minister on 14.4.2017 to promote the use of digital
payments through the BHIM App.
e.
Niti Aayog also launched two incentive
schemes to to promote digital payments across all sections of society - the
Lucky Grahak Yojana and the Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana –Over 16 lakh consumers
and merchants have won Rs. 256 crore under these two schemes .
f.
Digi Dhan Melas were also held for 100
days in 100 cities, from December 25th to April 14th.
V.
Atal Innovation Mission: The
Government has set up Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in NITI Aayog with a view
to strengthen the country’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem by
creating institutions and programs that spur innovation in schools, colleges,
and entrepreneurs in general. In 2016-17, the following major schemes were
rolled out:
a. Atal
Tinkering Labs (ATLs): To foster creativity and scientific temper in students,
AIM is helping to establish 500 ATLs in schools across India, where students
can design and make small prototypes to solve challenges they see around them,
using rapid prototyping technologies that have emerged in recent years.
b. Atal
Incubation Centres (AICs): AIM will provide financial support of Rs.10 crore
and capacity buidling for setting AICs across India, which will help startups
expand quicker and enable innovation-entrepreneurship, in core sectors such as
manufacturing, transport, energy, education, agriculture, water and sanitation,
etc.
VI.
Indices Measuring States’ Performance in Health,
Education and Water Management: As part of the
Prime Minister’s Focus on outcomes, NITI has come out with indices to measure
incremental annual outcomes in critical social sectors like health, education
and water with a view to nudge the states into competing with each other for
better outcomes, while at the same time sharing best practices &
innovations to help each other - an example of competitive and cooperative
federalism..
VII.
Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on
Rationalization of Centrally Sponsored Schemes: Based on the recommendations of this Sub-Group, a Cabinet note was
prepared by NITI Aayog which was approved by the Cabinet on 3rd
August, 2016. Among several key decision, the sub-group led to the
rationalization of the existing CSSs into 28 umbrella schemes.
VIII.
Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan: Constituted
by NITI Aayog on 9th March, 2015, the Sub-Group has
submitted its report to the Hon’ble Prime Minister in October, 2015 and most of
its recommendations have been accepted.
IX.
Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Skill
Development: Constituted on 9th March, 2015, the
report of the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Skill Development was presented
before the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 31/12/2015. The recommendation and
actionable points emerging from the Report were approved by the Hon’ble Prime
Minister and are in implementation by the Ministry of Skill Development
X.
Task Force on Elimination of Poverty in India:
Constituted
on 16th March, 2015 under the Chairmanship of Dr. Arvind Panagariya,
Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, the report of the Task Force was
finalized and submitted to Hon’ble Prime Minister on 11th July,
2016. The report of the Task Force primarily focusses on issues of measurement
of poverty and strategies to combat poverty. Regarding estimation of poverty,
the report of the Task Force states that “a consensus in favour of either the
Tendulkar or a higher poverty line did not emerge. Therefore, the Task Force
has concluded that the matter be considered in greater depth by the country’s
top experts on poverty before a final decision is made. Accordingly, it is
recommended that an expert committee be set up to arrive at an informed
decision on the level at which the poverty line should be set.” With respect to
strategies to combat poverty, the Task Force has made recommendations on faster
poverty reduction through employment intensive sustained rapid growth and
effective implementation of anti-poverty programs.
XI.
Task Force on Agriculture Development: The
Task Force on Agricultural development was constituted on 16th March, 2015
under the Chairmanship of Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog. The
Task Force based on its works prepared an occasional paper entitled “Raising
Agricultural Productivity and Making Farming Remunerative for Farmers” focusing
on 5 critical areas of Indian Agriculture. These are (i) Raising Productivity,
(ii) Remunerative Prices to Farmers, (iii) Land Leasing, Land Records &
Land Titles; (iv) Second Green Revolution-Focus on Eastern States; and (v)
Responding to Farmers’ Distress. After taking inputs of all the States on
occasional paper and through their reports, the Task Force submitted the final
report to Prime Minister on 31st May, 2016. It has suggested important policy
measures to bring in reforms in agriculture for the welfare of the farmers as
well as enhancing their income.
XII.
Transforming India Lecture Series: As the government’s premier think-tank, NITI Aayog views knowledge
building & transfer as the enabler of real transformation in States. To
build knowledge systems for States and the Centre, NITI Aayog launched the
‘NITI Lectures: Transforming India’ series, with full support of the Prime
Minister on 26th August 2016. The
lecture series is aimed at addressing the top policy making team of the
Government of India, including members of the cabinet and several top layers of
the bureaucracy. It aims is to bring cutting edge ideas in development policy
to Indian policy makers and public, so as to promote the cause of
transformation of India into a prosperous modern economy. The Hon’ble Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Shri Tharman
Shanmugaratnam, delivered the first lecture on the topic: India and the Global
Economy. On November 16th, 2016, Bill Gates, Co-Founder, Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, delivered the second lecture in the series under the
theme: 'Technology and Transformation'.
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