NITI Aayog : Important Details you should know

sponsored links

Friends, In accordance with a key announcement made by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his Independence Day speech, The 65 year old Planning Commission was on 1st January 2015 replaced by a new body, NITI Aayog, which will serve as a policy think-tank for the central as well as state governments and have the PM as it's Chairperson. As this is a newly formed government organization, you will definitely expect questions from NITI Aayog in your upcoming Competitive exams and Interviews. So here are some important details you should know about NITI Aayog. Happy Reading :)

What is NITI Aayog ?

In Hindi, NITI (नीति) means Policy, And Ayog (आयोग) means Commission. So, the NITI Aayog would therefore mean :

• A group of people with authority entrusted by the government to formulate/regulate policies concerning transforming India.
• It is a commission to help government in social and economic issues.
• Also it's an Institute of think tank with experts in it.

In English we can expand NITI Aayog as "National Institution for Transforming India Aayog"

Planning Commission

The Planning Commission was an institution in the Government of India, which formulated India's Five-Year Plans, among other functions. It is located at Yojana Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi. It was established in accordance with article 39 of the constitution which is a part of directive principles of state policy.

After replacing the Planning commission with NITI Aayog, the government has archived the website of erstwhile Planning Commission while the new body will launch its own website in few days. The planning commission website has been archived and all related material can be accessed on

http://planningcommissionarchive.nic.in/

Timeline

• On 15th March 1950 Planning commission was established.
• On 29th May 2014,  The first IEO (Independent Evaluation Office) assessment report was submitted to Prime Minister Modi, three days after he was sworn in. 
• According to Ajay Chibber, who heads the IEO, views in the report are based on the views of stakeholders and some Planning Commission members themselves. Planning Commission to be replaced by "control commission"
• On 13th August 2014, Cabinet of Modi govt. scrapped the Planning Commission
• On 15th August 2014, Modi mentioned to replace Planning Commission by National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC) on the line of China
• On 1st January 2015, the Government officially announced the formation of NITI Aayog

Important Points to Note about NITI Aayog

• NITI Aayog - National Institution for Transforming India Aayog
• Aim : To involve the states in economic policy-making in India. 
• The NITI Aayog will have a governing council comprising of all State Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors and will work towards fostering a 'Co-Operative Federalism' for providing a "national agenda" to the Centre and states.
• NITI Aayog will emerge as a “think-tank” that will provide Governments at the central and state levels with relevant strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy.
• The earlier Planning Commission had a Deputy Chairperson at the helm, with Prime Minister as its chairperson.
• The NITI Aayog consists a Chairman,  a Vice- Chairman, 2 full time members, 4 ex-officio members (Union ministers) and 3 special invitees.

Key People in NITI Aayog :

• Chairman : Narendra Modi
• Vice Chairman : Arvind Panagariya (took charge on 13th January 2015)
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) : Sindhushree Khullar
• Full Time Members :
• Bibek Debroy (Economist)
• V. K. Saraswat (former DRDO chief)
• Ex-Officio members
• Rajnath Singh (Union Minister)
• Arun Jaitley (Union Minister)
• Suresh Prabhu (Union Minister)
• Radha Mohan Singh (Union Minister)
• Special Invitees
• Nitin Gadkari (Union Minister)
• Smriti Zubin Irani (Union Minister)
• Thawar Chand Gehlot (Union Minister)

sponsored links