Niti

Efforts on to make healthcare future ready : NITI Aayog member V K Paul

NITI Aayog member V K Paul on Tuesday said the government is committed to fully re-energising the primary healthcare sector to make it future ready. Addressing the FICCI HEAL 2024' conference, Paul said a 'Viksit Bharat' also means a USD 32 trillion economy along with a rise in per capita income to USD 18,000 from the current USD 2,500. "We are not just running a scheme but are building the entire primary healthcare system which will be future ready and will serve our nation's journey to Viksit Bharat by 2047," he said. Paul said the health sector will be the base for this journey and it should try to outshine other sectors, he added. Highlighting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare sector, Paul said the government is ensuring that the new technologies are validated. "AI for health leadership belongs to India. We would like India to not only become the biggest consumer of AI for health but also biggest creator of AI for health, he said, urging the industry t

Treatment of West Bengal CM at NITI Aayog meet unacceptable: Cong

The Congress on Saturday said the treatment meted out to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a NITI Aayog meeting here was "unacceptable". The opposition party's scathing criticism of the government think tank came after Banerjee walked out of the 9th Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog, claiming she was unfairly stopped midway through her speech. The government rejected Banerjee's charges, saying the time allotted to her for speaking at the meeting was over. The Congress alleged the Niti Aayog has functioned as a "drumbeater" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was chairing the meeting, since it was set up 10 years ago. The meeting was boycotted by Congress party chief ministers over alleged discrimination against non-NDA-ruled states in the Union Budget. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "Since it was established ten years ago, NITI Aayog has been an attached office of the PMO and has functioned as a drumbeater for the ...

CMs of 10 states, UTs skip governing council meeting: NITI Aayog CEO

As many as 10 states and UTs did not participate in the ninth Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its CEO B.V.R. Subrahmanyam said on Saturday. The meeting was attended by 26 participants including Chief Ministers and Lt Governors of UTs, he said while briefing the media. The absentees were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Puducherry, he said adding "It is their loss if they did not participate." Regarding West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who walked out of the meeting, Subrahmanyam said her request to speak before lunch was accepted although her turn would have come in the afternoon going in the alphabetical order of the states. The NITI Aayog CEO further said that when her time was up, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh just tapped the mic and she stopped speaking and walked out. Although officials of West Bengal government continued to attend the meeting

NITI Aayog meet: Chhattisgarh CM Sai pitches for skill-based education, AI

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Saturday pitched for promoting skill-based education, natural dispensaries and artificial intelligence in his state, as he committed his state's full support in achieving the goal of making India a developed country by 2047. Speaking here at the Governing Council meeting of the Niti Aayog, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sai listed various priorities and efforts being made for Chhattisgarh's development with an emphasis on education, human resource development, health and technological advancement. He said Chhattisgarh will play a pivotal role in "Developed India by 2047". At present, the state's GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) is Rs 5.05 lakh crore, which is targeted to be increased to Rs 10 lakh crore in the next five years, and the state has started work on possibilities of improvements and achieving goals in various fields, Sai said. Emphasising the role of youngsters in the development of the state, the chief minister

D Raja justifies INDIA bloc CMs boycotting NITI Aayog meet, blames Centre

CPI general secretary D Raja Saturday justified the decision of several chief ministers to boycott the Governing Council meetings of the NITI Aayog, claiming that certain actions of the Centre are behind their move. Taxes and funds were not being shared properly by the central government, Raja alleged. "The CMs who are boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting have certain issues. There are very genuine issues. The Central government's actions were responsible for it," Raja told reporters here. Chief ministers of the INDIA bloc -- Stalin (DMK), Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI-M), Punjab's Bhagwant Mann (Aam Aadmi Party), Congress's Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) and Revanth Reddy (Telangana), and Jharkhand's Hemant Soren (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) -- skipped the NITI Aayog meeting. Stating that the Constitution defines India (Bharat), as a union of states, Raja said: "It means the union government should treat all the state governments equally and there ..

BJP hits out at Mamata for walking out of NITI Aayog meet, calls it drama

The opposition BJP in West Bengal criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for walking out of the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, claiming that it was a "drama" aimed at reaping political dividends. BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said it was a "weak script" prepared by Banerjee. "She was allowed due time at the NITI Aayog meeting. She did not go to the meeting for the economic benefit of the people of West Bengal but to reap political dividends and stage a drama by walking out," he claimed. "She portrayed herself as an opposition leader and not an administrator," he added. CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya questioned why Banerjee attended the meeting in the first place when chief ministers of other INDIA bloc parties skipped it. "She was aware of the consequences. And her action again gives rise to the theory that she went to Delhi to have some understanding with Narendra Modi. People will realise the pretentiousness of the entire issue," he .

Niti Aayog meeting faces boycott from opposition leaders over budget woes

Chief ministers from Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Kerala will be skipping the Niti Aayog meeting

India proving to be source of solutions in multiple areas: NITI Aayog VC

India is proving to be a source of solutions in multiple areas, including public service delivery and digitalisation, NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Suman Bery said. Bery also said that by putting the SDGs at the heart of its G20 presidency, India has acknowledged that these are an almost sacred commitment by the global community to its less advantaged people. India is proving to be a source of solutions in multiple areas, be it public service delivery, be it digitalisation, even for multinational corporations, the so-called global capability centres, Bery told PTI in an exclusive interview here. Both in their design and I would argue, based on the Indian experience on their implementation, I really see the SDGs as a commitment by governments to their own people. In the 21st century, this is a kind of commitment to a decent life. Responding to a question on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a developed India by 2047, Bery underscored that the Indian leader has highlighted how m

NITI Aayog reconstituted, Union ministers from NDA allies find place

Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Food Processing Industries Minister Chirag Paswan among new members

NITI Aayog reconstituted, 15 union ministers, NDA allies made part of it

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government on Tuesday reconstituted the NITI Aayog, with four full-time members and 15 union ministers, including from BJP allies, as either ex-officio members or special invitees. Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the chairperson and economist Suman K Bery will continue to be the vice-chairperson of NITI Aayog, according to an official notification. Scientist V K Saraswat, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, paediatrician V K Paul and macro-economist Arvind Virmani will also continue to be full-time members of the government think-tank. The four ex-officio members will be Union Ministers Rajnath Singh (Defence), Amit Shah (Home), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Agriculture) and Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance). The prime minister has approved the revised composition of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), the notification said. The special invitees in the reconstituted NITI Aayog will be Union ministers Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and .

NITI Aayog's report backs Bihar govt's demand for special category status

Bihar government ministers claimed that the latest report of NITI Aayog's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index 2023-24 vindicated the state's long-standing demand for greater central financial assistance. NITI Aayog on July 12 released SDG India Index 2023-24. Bihar has figured at the bottom, despite improvements on some parameters, in the SDG Index India that makes an assessment of sustainable development. Commenting on NITI Aayog's latest SDG Index, senior JD (U) leader and Bihar Water Resources Minister, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, told PTI, "The latest report of Aayog has vindicated our long-standing demand for greater central financial assistance..this is the reason that we have been asking for special category status (SCS) or special package for Bihar which is managing its finances on its own. But Bihar comes among the poorest states in the country." He said "Bihar is the most deserving state that needs special financial assistance from the Centre. The economy of Bihar i

Need to find out practical solutions of problems facing states: NITI member

NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani on Wednesday made a case for finding 'practical' solutions to problems faced by states, as many of them like Rajasthan and Odisha have done well without getting the special category status. Virmani further said in a democracy one has to recognise specific problems and find out pragmatic solutions. He was responding to a question on the issue of granting special category status (SCS) to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. "There have been committees and commissions which have tried to define criteria for special category status (for states). And again, it is a difficult issue," Virmani told PTI. The economist noted that in the last 30-40 years, "we used to have BIMARU states". "But Odisha for example developed a lot, Rajasthan has developed a lot and things change. "As far as I know, none of those states had special category status. That does not mean it is not important," he said. Andhra Pradesh has been demanding special category status after its bifurcat

PM Modi to chair NITI Aayog's ninth Governing Council meet on July 27

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair NITI Aayog's ninth Governing Council meeting on July 27, which will discuss the 'Vikshit Bharat@2047' document to make India a developed nation, a senior government official said on Monday. The council, the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all state chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories, and several Union ministers. Modi is the Chairman of NITI Aayog. NITI Aayog's Governing Council will meet on July 27. "Ahead of the Council meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will likely give a glimpse of the Viksit Bharat vision and action plan in the Budget on July 23," the official said. A vision document is being prepared for India to become a developed economy of USD 30 trillion by 2047, the 100th year of its independence. In 2023, NITI Aayog was entrusted with the task of consolidating the 10 sectoral thematic visions into a combined vision for Viksit Bharat @2047. The vision encompasses various aspects of development, .

Lack of non-agri data hinders computation of farmers' income: Niti member

The lack of data on cultivators and their income from other sources has become a hindrance in determining whether farmers' income has actually doubled or not, Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand said, pointing out that they are earning more from non-agricultural sources. The Niti Aayog member further said that prices of agricultural commodities can not be fixed by a law as it has serious implications, which are neither in the interest of the agriculture sector nor individual farmers. "The government had fixed the goal of doubling farmers' income so that we make more efforts. There is a need for this assessment, where we are in terms of this goal. (But) the required data is not available with us," Chand told PTI in an interview. In 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government set a highly ambitious target of doubling farmers' incomes by 2022. An inter-ministerial committee on "Doubling of Farmers' Income" was set up in April 2016 to recommend strategies to achieve this goal. The ..

NITI, govt launch forum for advancing climate resilient agri-food system

NITI Aayog, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare (MoA&FW), and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on Wednesday jointly launched the 'Investment Forum for Advancing Climate Resilient Agrifood Systems in India', an official statement said. The initiative aims to develop an investment and partnership to advance climate-resilient agrifood systems among the government, private sectors, and farmers' organisations, and financial institutions in India, it said. Delivering the keynote address at the inauguration, NITI Aayog Member Ramesh Chand emphasised on the need for awareness on how agriculture contributes to climate change, citing a contribution of a little more than 13 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country. He observed that agriculture could play a role in carbon sequestration through tree plantation on farmland. Chand also called for a new direction in economic analysis of agriculture production, considering the impact on ...

Over 248 mn Indians moved out of poverty in last 9 years: NITI report

As many as 24.82 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty in nine years from 2013-14 to 2022-23, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh registering the largest decline, NITI Aayog said in a report on Monday. Multidimensional poverty is measured by improvement in health, education, and standard of living, it said. According to the NITI discussion paper, multidimensional poverty in India was found to have declined from 29.17 per cent in 2013-14 to 11.28 per cent in 2022-23, with about 24.82 crore people moving out of this bracket during this period. The national multidimensional poverty measures simultaneous deprivations across three equally weighted dimensions of health, education, and standard of living that are represented by 12 sustainable development goals-aligned indicators, according to NITI Aayog. These include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electrici

NITI Aayog to support 50-youth led social startups, applications open

Dedicated young entrepreneurs offering solutions that address tangible issues or foster meaningful co-innovation opportunities aged 18-29 are invited to apply

With 6 fresh cases, active caseload of Covid sub-variant JN.1 rises to 69

With six more cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1, the number of infections of the new variant reported in the country have risen to 69, official sources said on Tuesday. Most of these patients are currently in home isolation and there was no increase in hospitalisation rates, they said. NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr V K Paul had said last week that the new variant was being closely investigated but he stressed on the need for states to ramp up testing and strengthen their surveillance systems. Even though the number of cases is rising and the JN.1 sub-variant has been detected in the country, there is no cause of immediate concern as 92 per cent of those infected are opting for home-based treatment, indicating a mild illness, officials had said. There is also no increase in hospitalisation rates and COVID-19 is an incidental finding in those hospitalised due to other medical conditions, they had said. In a letter to states and Union territories, Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pan

Commerce ministry seeking views of NITI on draft bills on 5 cash crops

The commerce ministry is seeking views from different ministries and government think tank Niti Aayog on draft bills pertaining to five cash crops like tea and tobacco, an official said. The ministry has circulated separate notes for the bills related to cash crops of tea, coffee, spices, rubber and tobacco, which seek to promote their growth and create a conducive environment for businesses by decriminalising minor offences, the official said. After taking the comments, the ministry will approach the Union Cabinet for approval on the drafts of the Spices (Promotion and Development) Bill; the Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill; the Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill; the Tea (Promotion and Development) Bill; and the Tobacco Board (Amendment) Bill. In 2022, the Department of Commerce proposed the repeal and updation of decades-old laws on these sectors and to introduce new legislation with a view to promoting their growth and creating a conducive environment for ...

India saw significant decline in multidimensional poverty in 5 years: NITI

Uttar Pradesh recorded the steepest decline in the number of poor with 34.3 million people escaping multidimensional poverty, according to the report