GA Topper Series: NITI Aayog |

Recent news about NITI Aayog: The government has named Parameswaran Iyer the next chief executive of the NITI Aayog to succeed Amitabh Kant, whose term ends on June 30.

History of Niti Aayog

Planning Commission was replaced by a new institution – NITI Aayog on January 1, 2015, with emphasis on the ‘Bottom–Up’ approach to envisage the vision of Maximum Governance, Minimum Government, echoing the spirit of ‘Cooperative Federalism.

The administrative structure of Niti Aayog

Vice-Chairperson: To be appointed by Prime Minister: Present: Suman Berry
Governing Council: Chief Ministers of all states and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.
Regional Council: To address specific regional issues, Comprising Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors Chaired by Prime Minister or his nominee.
Adhoc Membership: 2 members in ex-officio capacity from leading Research institutions on a rotational basis.
Ex-Officio membership: Maximum of four from the Union council of ministers to be nominated by the Prime minister.
Chief Executive Officer: Appointed by the Prime-minister for a fixed tenure, in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.
Special Invitees: Experts, Specialists with domain knowledge nominated by the Prime-minister.

NITI Aayog’s creation has two hubs –

Team India: It leads the participation of Indian states with the central government.
The Knowledge and Innovation Hub: It builds the institution’s think tank capabilities.

Programs of Niti Aayog

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog in 2016 to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country.

AlM’s objectives are to create and promote an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country at schools, universities, research institutions, MSME, and industry levels.

- Aspirational Districts Program: Aspirational Districts are those districts in India that are affected by poor socio-economic indicators. These are aspirational in the context, that improvement in these districts can lead to the overall improvement in human development in India. The 117 districts were identified from 28 states, at least one from each state.
- Sath-E programme: ‘Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital-Education’, was launched in 2017 to identify and build three ‘role model’ States for the school education sector. After an elaborate selection process, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh were chosen.
Women Entrepreneurship Platform is a first-of-its-kind, unified access portal that brings together women from different parts of India to build a nurturing ecosystem that enables them to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations. WEP achieves this by facilitating relevant information and services through key partnerships launched in 2017