Subject - Social Work

Class- MSW
Year/Semester- - IV

NAME OF THE PAPER: POLICY COMMISSION: FUNCTION & STRUCTURE

Sub Topic: Introduction and History about Niti Aayog, Objectives of Niti Aayog,Features of Niti Aayog, Functions of Niti
Aayog, Composition/Structure of Niti Aayog, Area covered by Niti Aayog,Some Important Bodies of Niti Aayog. SGDs

Key Words: Niti aayog, Think Tank, NILERD, DMEO …

Bharti Kureel
Assistant Professor
Department of Social Work
M.G.K.V.P., Varanasi -02
[email protected]
Content:

*Introduction and History about Niti Aayog

*Objectives of Niti Aayog
*Features of Niti Aayog
*Functions of Niti Aayog
*Composition/Structure of Niti Aayog
*Area covered by Niti Aayog
*Some Important Bodies of Niti Aayog
*SGDs
 Introduction
The NITI Aayog (Policy Commission- National Institution for Transforming India) is a
policy think tank of the Government of India, established with the aim to achieve sustainable
development goals with cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of State Governments
of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach. Its initiatives include
"15-year road map", "7-year vision, strategy, and action plan", AMRUT, Digital India, Atal
Innovation Mission, Medical Education Reform, Agriculture reforms (Model Land Leasing Law,
Reforms of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act, Agricultural Marketing and Farmer
Friendly Reforms Index for ranking states), Indices Measuring States Performance in Health,
Education and Water Management, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Rationalization of Centrally
Sponsored Schemes, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Sub-Group of Chief
Ministers on Skill Development, Task Forces on Agriculture ,Poverty, and Transforming India
Lecture Series. It was established in 2015, by the NDA government, to replace the Planning
Commission which followed a top-down model. The NITI Aayog council comprises all the
state Chief Ministers, along with the Chief Ministers of Delhi and Pondicherry, the Lieutenant
Governor of Andaman and Nicobar and a vice-chairman nominated by the Prime Minister. 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. It
doubled the current growth - developing self-sufficient cluster target growth of 10%.
 History of NITI AAYOG
29 May 2014 Independent Evaluation Office submitted an assessment report to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi with the recommendation to replace the Planning Commission with a
"control commission." On 13 August 2014, the Union Cabinet scrapped the Planning
Commission, to be replaced with a diluted version of the National Advisory Council (NAC) of
India. 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). 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." It is a reformation scheme of the
day-to-day lifestyles of the people of India.
Objectives:
• 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 interest 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.
Features:
NITI Aayog is 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. NITI Aayog’s entire gamut of activities can be divided into
four main heads:
* Design Policy & Programme Framework
* Foster Cooperative Federalism
* Monitoring & Evaluation
* Think Tank and Knowledge & Innovation Hub
 Functions of Niti Aayog
• Niti Aayog makes the future plan , initiatives and implementation, progress ,monitoring to every
plan for the development of nation.
• Niti Aayog coordinates with the state government for the implementation of the plan and policy.
• Niti Aayog upgrades the all plans and programmes on the basis of need and identification of the
resources.
• Niti Aayog ensures the national security for every people of india.
• Niti Aayog works on economic policy too.
• Niti Aayog pays attention to the section of our society which are standing on any risk and not
having any benefit from economic progress.
• Niti Aayog provides advice and encouragement for partnerships between key stakeholders and
national and international Bodies (like- Think tanks, as well as educational and policy research
institutions).
• Niti Aayog creates a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a
collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other partners.
• Niti Aayog focuses on technology upgradation and capacity building for implementation of
programmes and initiatives.
• Niti Aayog works for SGDs, environmental development and disaster management too.
 Structure of NITI AAYOG
The NITI Aayog comprises the following:
• The Prime Minister as the Chairperson.
• A Governing Council composed of Chief Ministers of all the States and Union territories with
Legislatures and lieutenant governors of Union Territories (except Delhi and Pondicherry)
• Regional Councils composed of Chief Ministers of States and Lt. Governors of Union Territories in the
region to address specific issues and contingencies impacting more than one state or a region.
• Full-time organizational framework composed of a Vice-Chairperson, four full-time members, two part-
time members (from leading universities, research organizations and other relevant institutions in an ex-
officio capacity), four ex-officio members of the Union Council of Ministers, a Chief Executive Officer
(with the rank of Secretary to the Government of India) who looks after administration, and a secretariat.
• Experts and specialists in various fields.
With the Prime Minister as the Chairperson, presently NITI Aayog consists of:
• Vice Chairperson: Rajiv Kumar
• Ex-Officio Members: Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitaraman and Narendra Singh Tomar
• Special Invitees: Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Thawar Chand Gehlot and Rao Inderjit Singh
• Full-time Members: V. K. Saraswat (former DRDO Chief), Ramesh Chand (Agriculture Expert) and Dr.
Vinod Paul (Public Health expert)
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Amitabh Kant
• Governing Council: All Chief Ministers of States (except Delhi and Puducherry), Lieutenant Governor of
Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Special Invities.
 Area covered By NITI AAYOG
The different verticals of NITI provide the requisite coordination and support framework for NITI to
carry out its mandate. The list of verticals is as below:
• Agriculture
• Health • State Coordination & Decentralized Planning (SC & DP)
• Women & Child Development • Social Justice & Empowerment
• Governance & Research • Land & Water Resources
• HRD • Data management & Analysis
• Skill Development & Employment • Public-Private Partnerships
• Rural Development • Project Appraisal and Management Division (PAMD)
• Sustainable Development Goals • Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office
• Energy • National Institute of Labour Economics Research and
• Managing Urbanization Development (NILERD)
• Industry
• Infrastructure
• Financial Resources
• Natural Resources & Environment
• Science & Technology
 Autonomous Body of NITI AAYOG
National Institute Of Labour Economics Research And Development (NILERD):
The Government of India established the National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development (NILERD) in 1962. It
is a Central Autonomous Organization attached to NITI Aayog, Ministry of Planning. Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of NITI
Aayog presently serves as the President of its General Council, CEO, Shri Amitabh Kant as the Chairperson of the Executive
Council and Prof Arup Mitra as the Director General of NILERD. The primary objectives of this Institution include research and
data collection in relation to all major aspects of development, and education and training in all aspects of Human Capital Planning,
Human Resource Development and Monitoring and Evaluation.

Development Monitoring And Evaluation Office:

The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) was constituted in September 2015 by merging the Program
Evaluation Office (PEO) and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). It is an attached office under NITI Aayog, aimed at fulfilling
the organization’s monitoring and evaluation (M&E) mandate and building the M & E ecosystem in India.

According to the Cabinet Note that constitutes NITI Aayog, the organization is entrusted with development M&E functions
including: (i) to monitor progress and efficacy of strategic and long term policy and programme frameworks and initiatives to help
innovative improvements, including necessary mid-course corrections and (ii) 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.

DMEO’s vision is to improve sustainable outcomes and impacts of the government. It aims to enable high-quality monitoring and
evaluation of government programs to improve effectiveness, efficiency, equity and sustainability of service delivery, outcomes and
impacts.
The objectives of DMEO are:
• To enable data-driven policy making; to enable a culture of deep learning from regular self-
evaluation in all the tiers of the government.
• To institutionalize rigorous tracking of performance metrics and comprehensive program
evaluations.
• To strengthen the whole ecosystem to mainstream rigorous outcome monitoring and evaluation.
• To introduce and expand use of cutting edge technologies and data analytical tools for real time
monitoring of government programs.
• To provide data and tools to drive effectiveness and efficiency of government programs.
• To help identify weaknesses and bottlenecks for necessary course correction.

As a part of NITI Aayog, DMEO has advisory powers across the Ministries and Departments of the
Union Government, and is one of few institutions within the government to provide a cross and inter-
ministerial perspective. Its mandate also expands to technical advisory to States, under NITI Aayog’s
mandate of cooperative and competitive federalism. DMEO also has the ability to share reports and
reviews directly with key decision makers in the government to initiate action. This institutional
positioning also gives the organization convening power, to create a platform for M&E advancement in
the country. Since 2015, DMEO has worked largely on intra-governmental initiatives for outcome
monitoring, including sectoral reviews by the Prime Minister and an Output-Outcome Monitoring
Framework covering 591 schemes across 67 Ministries and Departments of the Government of India.
The most important area of Policy Commission is SGDs also. Policy Commission coordinate and measured
their target with the given parametre. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17
global goals designed to be a “Blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". The SDGs
set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and intended to be achieved by the year 2030 are part of
UN Resolution 70/1, the 2030 Agenda. The Sustainable Development Goals are:

• No Poverty • Reducing Inequality

• Zero Hunger • Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Good Health and Well-being • Responsible Consumption and
Production
• Quality Education
• Climate Action
• Gender Equality
• Life Below Water
• Clean Water and Sanitation
• Life On Land
• Affordable and Clean Energy
• Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
• Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Partnerships for the Goals
• Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Summary:
The goals are broad based and interdependent. The 17 sustainable development goals each has a list of
targets which are measured with indicators. In an effort to make the SDGs successful, data on the 17
goals has been made available in an easily-understood form. A variety of tools exist to track and
visualize progress towards the goals.
So Niti Aayog is the most important body of our nation which is working for the development of India
and determines the all plans and programmes according to need base .
Question to Check Progress: :

1.Describe the history of Policy Commission?

2. What are the Objectives of Policy Commission?
3. What are the functions of Policy Commission?
4. Discuss the Area of Policy Commission?

References:
https://niti.gov.in/objectives-and-features
https://niti.gov.in/constitution-5
https://niti.gov.in/SGDs

Thank You……