NITI Aayog Budget Allocation Increased by More than 20%

Budget 2018 enhances NITI’s role in the national policy, frontier technologies

The New India Budget presented by the  Finance Minister has cemented NITI Aayog’s role as a driver of transformational change in the country, said Hon’ble MoS (IC) for Planning Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, addressing a press conference today highlighting the budget allocations, achievements and programmes of NITI Aayog.

Allocations for the Ministry of Planning, which is embodied by the NITI Aayog, have increased by more than 20% over last year i.e. to ₹ 339.65 crore in 2018-19 from ₹ 279.79 crore in 2017-18.

Further, the budget envisages a defined role for NITI Aayog in critical areas of artificial intelligence and agriculture policy, apart from reiterating a shared vision for national development in line with NITI Aayog’s Three Year Action Agenda, the Seven Year Strategy and the 15 Year Vision Document.                        

NITI in the Budget

NITI Aayog, in consultation with Central and State Governments, will put in place a fool-proof mechanism so that farmers will get adequate price for their produce.

NITI Aayog, in consultation with State Governments, will evolve a suitable mechanism to enable access of lessee cultivators to credit without compromising the rights of the land owners.

NITI Aayog will initiate a national program to direct our efforts in the area of artificial intelligence, including research and development of its applications.

Apart from the above mentions, NITI Aayog through its officers, advisers and policy shaping role has been predominant in the planning of Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest health insurance scheme.

NITI: Learning from the past, shaping the future

Since its inception NITI Aayog has occupied a niche space in India’s policy environment. Through ambitious recommendations and dynamic initiatives, NITI has mobilized its expertise as the ‘think-tank’ of the government, in areas such as:

• Envisaging a roadmap for revitalizing Indian agriculture and doubling farmer’s income
• Framing of new guidelines for devolution of dedicated funds for SC/ST community
• National Energy Policy
• National Nutrition Strategy
• National Medical Council Bill
• National Medical Strategy
• Recommendations on strategic disinvestment of CPSEs
• Formulation of Model Land Leasing Bill
• Development support to the North East through North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS) 2017
• Employment task force
• Appraisal of the 12^th Five Year Plan
• Evolving policy on shared and connected mobility
• Holistic development of Islands

NITI Aayog is also directly involved in on-ground policy interventions through various programmes and schemes. Some of these are outlined below.

1. Atal Innovation Mission:

Spurring innovation through Atal Tinkering Labs in schools and Atal Incubation Centres across the country, AIM has been a widely popular programme of NITI. Atal Grand Challenges and Tinkering Marathons have encouraged young entrepreneurs across the country to learn, innovate and engage with cutting-edge technology.

• 2441 ATL Schools selected as on Date:
  • 941 Selected in Phase 1 announced from the applications invited in 2016.
  • 1500 Selected in Phase 2 announced on 25-Dec-2017 i.e. on Atal Ji’s 93^rd Birthday from applications invited in 2017.
  • Grant-in-aid including one-time establishment cost of ₹ 10 lakh and operational expenses of ₹ 10 lakh for maximum of 5 years for each ATL
  • All States are covered as of now in ATL Selections

• Incubation Centres:
  • Established Incubation Centre: 6 EIC Supported in 16-17. Around 8-10 are in pipeline for approval during 2017-18.
  • Funding support for scaling up of operations of ₹ 10 crore for EICs,  to be paid in installments
  • Atal Incubation Centre: 13 selected in 16-17, around 20-25 in pipeline for consideration during 17-18. Funding support upto ₹ 10 crore for maximum of 5 years

2. Cooperative Federalism

• Sub-groups of Chief Ministers on critical subjects(April 2017):

• Restructuring of Centrally sponsored schemes
• Skill development
• Swachh Bharat
• Promotion of Digital Payments

• National consultations with Chief Secretaries of all states and Finance secretaries

• Programme to transform Aspirational Districts by engaging with DMs and Prabhari officers of 115 districts across the country

• Representations made to NITI by groups of Secretaries, creating cross ministry interactions and collaborations

3. Competitive federalism

• Introduction of Digital Transformation Index and Innovation Index for ranking states
• Launch of the Health Index, which is to become an annual exercise across the country evaluating health outcomes.       
• Organized extensive workshops for consultation with States and UTs on indices
• Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital (SATH): handholding for states to develop key indicators across areas of health and education
• School Education Quality Index (SEQI), Composite Water Management Index

4. Sustainable Development Goals

• As nodal body for monitoring implementation of SDGs, KPI created by NITI Aayog to assess progress of states
• Draft mapping of goals with measurable indicators

5. Outcome based evaluation and monitoring across 15 key sectors of the economy

• Extensive data-based, performance evaluation of states through DMEO dashboard and progress tracker
• A rigorous exercise to bring qualitative improvement in the Output-Outcome Framework by
  • reviewing and identifying relevant outputs and outcomes
  • quantifiable and measurable indicators to monitor
  • Strategic Outcomes Verification Process (SOVP) for performance monitoring
  • Program Evaluation
    • 12 programs evaluated
    • Evaluation report finalised for
      • Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme
      • National Scheduled Caste Finance Development Corporation
      •  
      • Harmonized Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan
      • PMAY (Urban)

• Compiling, transmitting and emulating best practices across states.
• SAMAVESH: enabling cooperation between NITI and knowledge, research partners and institutions

6. National and International Partnerships:

• NITI Lecture Series: 3 lectures held so far by luminaries on governance
• NITI-DRC dialogue: China Cell constituted at NITI to foster cooperation
• Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017: US India summit with over 2500 top entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem players
• Champions of Change: Facilitated Hon’ble Prime Minister’s stakeholder consultation with start-ups and industry for policy inputs across 12 sectors

7. Adoption of Frontier Technologies

• NITI Aayog working on a position paper on blockchain technology, AI and its applications in governance
• Partnering with state governments/UTs to run pilots on land records, Electronic health records, etc.

• Working on a concept paper for “IndiaChain” – a shared, India specific blockchain infrastructure
• Implementation of MIS database for NITI Aayog
• Arbitration and enforcement in India Conference.
• Digital Hub for Govt. Best Practices for NITI Aayog

8.  Research, Study and Collaborations

• 5 Research Studies completed
• 7 National Seminars and 2 International Seminars Approved
• 10 New Research Studies approved and 1^st instalment Released
• Release of 2^nd instalment for 9 Research studies
• 15 Logo support proposals approved

9. Strengthening Arbitration and Legal Reforms

• Global Conference on ‘Strengthening Arbitration and Enforcement in India’
• Law Day Conference on ‘Balancing Roles of Three Wings of the State’ in association with Law Commission of India
• Participation of over 1500 participants each day including Hon’ble President, Speaker, Lok Sabha; PM, other Ministers, Judges of Supreme Court, High Court, legal fraternity and academia.

NITI Aayog, as the premier ‘think-tank’ of the Government of India has been crucial in navigating and charting the course of the country in matters of national and international importance on the economic front, dissemination of best practices from within the country and from other nations, the infusion of new policy ideas and specific issue-based support.

NITI Aayog role in national policy expanded to mandate farmer price mechanisms, lessee credit access and a national AI programme. Budgetary enhancement reinforces NITI Aayog's central policy role with specific mandates to ensure fair farmer prices, enable credit access for lessee cultivators without undermining landowner rights, and to launch a national programme directing artificial intelligence research and applications. The Aayog's remit spans design and implementation support through the Atal Innovation Mission, incubation funding, sectoral policy inputs, state engagement via cooperative and competitive federalism measures, and strengthened outcome based monitoring, evaluation and SDG tracking.