Niti governing council meet: Modi asks states to raise capex, infra spend

Calls for debate on simultaneous elections; says consensus on GST a spirit of cooperative federalism

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday exhorted state chief ministers to speed up capital expenditure and infrastructure creation, now that the Budget had been passed and funds were available from the start of the year. He also called for a debate on simultaneous elections, and termed the consensus on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) a spirit of cooperative federalism.

In his opening remarks at the third meeting of the Niti Aayog governing council, the prime minister said: "This (change in the Budget presentation date) would enable timely availability of funds at the beginning of the financial year." 

Earlier, he