Composition and Functions of NITI Aayog

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, which is a kind of policy think tank, was established in 2015 by the Government of India. The composition of NITI Aayog, which replaced the Planning Commission, has Prime Minister as its chairman and the remaining members are slightly different from that of the Planning Commission.

The functions of NITI Aayog are somewhat different because Planning Commission followed a top-down model in its approach whereas NITI Aayog followed a bottom-up approach in accomplishing sustainable development goals and in improving cooperative federalism by promoting the State Governments to involve in the economic planning.

Composition of NITI Aayog

If we consider the structure of NITI Aayog,

• The Prime Minister of India is the ex-officio chairman of NITI Aayog.
  
  
• There will be a Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, who will be appointed by the Prime Minister. Arvind Panagariya was the first Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog.
  
  
• The Governing Council members are the Chief Ministers of all the States and heads of the Union Territories.
  
  
• Regional Councils members are the Chief Ministers of the States and heads of the Union Territories of particular regions.
  
  

• There will be four ex-officio members of NITI Aayog from the Union Council of Ministers.
  
  
• There will be two part-time members, who are from research organizations, reputed universities and relevant institutions and some full time members of NITI Aayog (number not specified).
  
  
• NITI Aayog comprises of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (having the rank of a Secretary to Government of India) for looking after administration and there will be a Secretariat.
  
  
• The structure of NITI Aayog will also have some special invitees, who are experts, specialists and practitioners having relevant domain knowledge in various fields and are nominated by Prime Minister.

Functions of NITI Aayog

The NITI Aayog functions are given below in points

• With the active participation of different States, NITI Aayog works out a common vision of national development strategies, priorities and sectors in the perspective of national objectives.
  
  
• As working of NITI Aayog follows a bottom-up approach, it tries to devise plans at the village level and aggregates them at higher levels of government.
  
  
• One of the main functions of NITI Aayog is to promote cooperative federalism between the States and the Centre by accepting the fact that strong States create a strong nation.
  
  
• One of the important role of NITI Aayog in Indian economy is to pay special attention for inclusive growth of all the sections of our society so that everyone gets the fruits of the progressing economy.
  
  
• When required, it ensures that the concerns of national security are integrated into the economic strategy and policy.
  
  
• One of the main objectives of NITI Aayog is to design the policies and programmes and monitor the advancement in their implementation and take corrective actions and make innovative improvements if necessary, by taking regular feedbacks.
  
  
• It gives advice and promotes partnerships between important stakeholders like Education and Policy Research Institutions, national and the international Think Tanks, etc.
  
  
• It creates an innovative, entrepreneurial and a knowledge based support system by collaborating different stakeholders like national and international experts, specialists, practitioners and other relevant partners.
  
  
• It will maintain a highest level Resource Centre which can act a repository of research on good governance and the best practices that are followed in equitable and sustainable development and help in distributing them to the concerned stakeholders.
  
  
• It will act as a platform for solving the issues between different departments and between different sectors for accelerating the implementation of developmental programmes.
  
  
• It focuses on capacity building and upgrading the required technology for implementation of developmental programmes and initiatives.
  
  
• The composition of NITI Aayog is done in such a way that it can approach an issue in an all inclusive manner. Other functions of NITI Aayog are to continuously search for and undertake activities that are necessary to boost the execution of the developmental activities and objectives that are specified above.

1. In which year NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission?
   
   
   1. 2014
   
   
   2. 2015
   
   
   3. 2016
   
   
   4. 2017
   
   Answer
   
   Ans: B
   
   
   
2. In the composition of NITI Aayog, who acts as the ex-officio chairman?
   
   
   1. Prime Minister of India
   
   
   2. Home Minister of India
   
   
   3. President of India
   
   
   4. Finance Minister of India
   
   Answer
   
   Ans: A