Niti Aayog restructured to facilitate smooth running

The government will adopt verticals on Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s sectoral initiatives instead of divisions for the smooth functioning of the newly set up National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog.

Updated on: Mar 3, 2015, 24:05:59 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government will adopt verticals on Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s sectoral initiatives instead of divisions for the smooth functioning of the newly set up National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog.

Niti Aayog was allocated `20,000 crore in the Budget to distribute among states as special package.

The erstwhile Planning Commission, whose structure was inherited by the Niti Aayog, had divisions to deal with different sectors, the appraisal of schemes and state plans. So much so, that some divisions, like that of energy, had two advisers which could create confusion and have people working at cross-purposes.

A senior functionary said Niti Aayog looked to dismantle the old framework structured on the line of command and introduce verticals that deal with everything within a structure, from suggesting policy framework to collaborating with academic, research institutions across the globe.

Sources said each sector like Make in India (manufacturing), Swachh Bharat, Clean India (energy with focus on renewable energy), More Crop for Every Drop (agriculture and allied services) etc. would have its own vertical. The prime minister’s office wants senior domain experts, instead of bureaucrats, to head each vertical.

Vice-chairman Arvind Panagaryia would provide the necessary overview to the verticals

“We are looking for a corporate-type framework that leads to more informed discussions and better outcomes. The verticals also lead to better monitoring and execution of plans,” a senior NITI Aayog functionary said.

The Aayog hopes to have the new framework in place before June as the institution has given contracts to young professionals. Their contracts initially ended last December, but they were extended for another six months as they could be accommodated in the new verticals.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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