In pursuance of the Prime Minister’s call for a New India 2022, the first meeting of the National Steering Group and other knowledge partners was held in NITI Aayog on 17th May 2017 under the co-chairmanship of Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO and Shri Ratan P Watal, Principal Adviser, NITI Aayog. The meeting was aimed at bringing together 32 premier educational and policy research institutions to catalyse the development process, enhance institutional capacity development and a field level interface with the community for New India 2022. The meeting witnessed signing of Memoranda of Understands (MoUs) between NITI Aayog and major think tanks across the country to create an ecosphere of evidence based policy research. This network will enable efficient knowledge sharing and information exchange among all partners to fulfil their role in transformative policy reform so as to achieve a sustainable and more inclusive development in line with the National Development Agenda, Sustainable Development Goals as well as the 15 year Vision, 7 year strategy and 3 year action plan. The meeting was also attended by representatives of four State Governments viz. Kerala, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog made a presentation before the knowledge and research institutions on the initiatives taken by NITI and how the institutions can collaborate for overall development of the country. Shri Ratan P Watal, Principal Adviser, NITI Aayog emphasized upon the role that India’s premier institutions can play in country’s development through a collaborative approach. This is the first ever initiative taken in the country to bring the large number of institutions cutting across diverse domain themes to deliberate together on the way forward for inclusive development of the country. As part of Samavesh initiative, a new link on NITI’s website was launched on the occasion which would eventually emerge as a major repository of knowledge based reports and case studies across different sectors of the economy.

Institutional collaboration to build an evidence based policy research network supporting inclusive development through shared knowledge products. NITI Aayog launched the Samavesh initiative to create a collaborative network of premier research institutions and select state representatives, formalising partnerships through Memoranda of Understanding to enable evidence based policy research, knowledge sharing, and information exchange. The initiative focuses on institutional capacity development, field engagement, and producing sectoral reports and case studies aligned with national development goals, and it established a dedicated website repository to host the network's knowledge products and facilitate ongoing collaboration.