President Pranab Mukherjee will preside over a two-day conference of governors beginning on Wednesday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
This is the 46th such conference to be held in Rashtrapati Bhavan and the third conference to be presided over by President Mukherjee.
Twenty-one Governors and two Lt. Governors of the states and Union Territories will attend the conference.
Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, Union Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh and Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram will participate in the conference.
Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Ministry of Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Development of North Eastern Region Dr. Jitendra Singh, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval would also participate.
The conference will deliberate on the following agenda items: security- internal and external with special focus on border security in States sharing international frontiers; financial inclusion; employment generation and employability- making skill development programmes effective; sanitation - achieving the goal of Swachh Bharat by 2019 on Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary; and issues relating to fifth and sixth schedule of the Constitution of India and development related issues of north-eastern areas.