NITI AAYOG

About Ministry

• The National Institution for Transforming India, also called NITI Aayog, was formed via a resolution of the Union Cabinet on January 1, 2015. NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. While designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States.
• The Governing Council of NITI, with The Prime Minister as its Chairman, comprises Chief Ministers of all States and Lt. Governors of Union Territories (UTs).
• The Government of India, in keeping with its reform agenda, constituted the NITI Aayog to replace the Planning Commission instituted in 1950. This was done in order to better serve the needs and aspirations of the people of India. An important evolutionary change from the past, NITI Aayog acts as the quintessential platform of the Government of India to bring States to act together in national interest, and thereby fosters Cooperative Federalism.
• On 7 June 2018, the Prime Minister approved the reconstitution of NITI Aayog to include Ex-officio members and special invitees.
• NITI Aayog is developing itself as a State-of-the-art Resource Centre, with the necessary resources, knowledge and skills, that will enable it to act with speed, promote research and innovation, provide strategic policy vision for the government, and deal with contingent issues.
• NITI Aayog’s entire gamut of activities can be divided into four main heads:
  • 1. Design Policy & Programme Framework
    2. Foster Cooperative Federalism
    3. Monitoring & Evaluation
    4. Think Tank and Knowledge & Innovation Hub

 

ATAL INNOVATION MISSION (AIM)

• Flagship Programme to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Objectives

• • To create and promote an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country at school, university, research institutions, MSME and industry levels.
  • It is envisaged as an umbrella innovation organization that would play an instrumental role in alignment of innovation policies between central, state and sectoral innovation schemes

Functions

• • The AIM has 2 core functions –
    1. Entrepreneurship promotion through Self-Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU) – wherein innovators would be supported and mentored to become successful entrepreneurs
    2. Innovation promotion – to provide a platform where innovative ideas are generated,

Salient Features

• The holistic framework includes-
  1. Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) – where students from Class 6th to Class 12th learn innovation skills and develop ideas.
  2. Atal Tinkering Marathon – The marathon puts nation-wide challenge in 6 thematic areas namely Clean Energy, Water resources, Waste management, Healthcare, Smart mobility, and Agri-tech to find out the best student innovators of India.
  3. Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) & Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACIC) – They will be set up at the university, NGO, SME and Corporate industry levels for promoting entrepreneurship in universities and industry.
  4. Atal New India Challenges and Atal Grand Challenges – To promote technology driven innovations and product creation for social and commercial impact
  5. Mentor India Campaign – It’s a strategic nation building initiative to engage leaders who can guide and mentor students. Industry, Academia, Government, Global Collaborations as a key to success.
• Recently, NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission and UNICEF also announced Young Champions Awards. The awards were presented to the top six most innovative solutions from across the country, which were shortlisted through the Atal Tinkering Marathon.

Sub-components of AIM

1. Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs)

Objective

• • • to promote creative, innovative mind set in schools

Vision

• • • Every school to have access to at least one or more ATLs in each district of the country – Creating One Million Neoteric Child Innovators by 2020

What are ATLs?

• • • Dedicated innovation workspaces of 1200-1500 square feet where do-it-yourself (DIY) kits on latest technologies are installed such as 3D Printers, Robotics, Internet of Things (IOT), Miniaturized electronic etc.
    • Designed to spur the spark of creativity, and go beyond regular curriculum and text book learning Target Group – students from Class 6 to Class 12

Funding

• • • One time Grant of Rs 20 Lakhs (10 Lakh – Establishment, 10 Lakh Operational expenses for 5 years)

Eligibility

• • • Schools managed by Government, local body or private trusts/society.

Strategy

• • • On-the-ground activities to engage students & teachers in identifying community related problems & creating innovative solutions
    • Atal Innovation Tinkering challenge, ATAL Tinkering Marathon, ATAL Community Day.

 

2. Atal Incubation Centres

Aim

• • • To create world class incubation facilities at the university, NGO, SME and Corporate industry levels
    • To nurture sustainable & scalable innovative start-up businesses-+ Job Creators
    • To address both commercial & social entrepreneurship opportunities
    • To provide scale up support to existing incubators
    • Every one of 110 named smart cities & top 5-10 educational/ industrial institutions of every state to aspire to have a world class incubator

Financial Support

• • • Grant-in-aid upto Rs. 10 crore for a max. 5 years (capital & operational expenses)

Eligibility

• • • Higher educational institutions, R&D institutes, corporate sector, alternative investment funds registered with SEBI, business accelerators, group of individuals, & individuals

Requirements

• • • The applicant would have to provide at least 10,000 sq. ft. of ready-to-use, built-up space, for the exclusive use of the AIC.

 

3. Mentor India Initiative

• • • A strategic nation building initiative to engage leaders who can guide and mentor schools students in over 900 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL)
    • Aimed at maximizing the impact of Atal Tinkering Labs.

Strategy

• • • Engage corporates/ professionals/ academicians etc. who can dedicate 1-2 hours every week in 1 or more ATLs
    • Areas of contribution from mentors – technical know-how, innovation and design, inspirational, and business and entrepreneurship.
    • Mentors to discuss various problems faced by Indian society across multiple themes, & motivate students to develop solutions to these community problems
    • Mentors expected to be enablers rather than instructors.

 

4. Atal New India Challenges & Atal Grand Challenge

Aim

• • • To promote specific product innovations with social/ economic impact

Objectives

• • • To incentivize innovation in areas critical to India’s growth, such as health, housing, hygiene, energy and water.
    • Developing novel disruptive technologies that are ultra-low cost, low maintenance, durable and customised to the local conditions of India.
    • Energize & Engage local scientific and engineering community/academic institutions in finding novel solutions.
    • Make India a source of innovation & novel products to address similar problems faced by bottom 5 billion people of the world

Award

• • • Successful applicants get a grant of upto
      • Rs 1 crore for Atal New India Challenges
      • Rs 30 crores for Atal Grand Challenges.

 

5. Champions of Change

• • • Aims at Transforming India through G2B (Government to business) Partnership.
    • Entrepreneurs could be attached with the relevant ministries on a permanent basis to suggest policy initiatives.

 

6. Self-Employment & Talent Utilization (SETU)

• • • Entrepreneurship Promotion Sub-component of AIM
    • A techno-financial, incubation and facilitation programme
    • Aim – to give support and encouragement to young start-ups and other self-employment technology intensive ideas
    • It will involve setting up of incubation centres and enhance skill development.

 

SUSTAINABLE ACTION FOR TRANSFORMING HUMAN CAPITAL (SATH) PROGRAMME

• Vision – To initiate transformation in the education & health sectors, along with State Govt.
• The program addresses the need expressed by many states for technical support from NITI Aayog.

Objectives

• • To initiate transformation in the education and health sectors
  • Aims to identify and build future ‘role model’ states.

Implementation

• • 3 Way Partnership – NITI Aayog, State Government, and Knowledge Partner
    • Healthcare – McKinsey & Company and IPE Global consortium
    • Education – Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership (PFEL)

Strategy

• • Building Future “Role Model States”
    • For Education/Leaning Outcomes – Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Jharkhand (SATH E)
    • For Health – Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka

Salient Features

• • NITI Aayog will work in close collaboration with the state machinery to –
    1. design a robust roadmap of intervention,
    2. develop a program governance structure,
    3. set up monitoring and tracking mechanisms,
    4. handhold state institutions through the execution stage and
    5. provide support on a range of institutional measures to achieve the end objectives.
  • For Health Sector, NITI Ayog has elected Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Karnataka while for education sectors Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha.

 

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP PLATFORM (WEP)

Objectives

• • To substantially increase the number of women entrepreneurs who will create and empower a dynamic New India.
  • To build an ecosystem for women to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations, scale-up innovative initiatives and chalk-out sustainable, long-term strategies for their businesses.

Salient Features

• • 3 Pillars to Achieve Aspirations
    1. lchha Shakti – Motivating aspiring entrepreneurs to start their enterprise
    2. Gyaan Shakti – Providing knowledge & ecosystem support to women entrepreneurs
    3. Karma Shakti – Providing hands-on support to entrepreneurs in setting-up and scaling up businesses.

 

‘TRANSFORMATION OF ASPIRATIONAL DISTRICTS’ INITIATIVE

Objectives

• • To quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.
  • to remove inter-state and inter-district variations through a ‘mass movement’ by making a dramatic improvement in overall socio-economic development of 117 backward districts across 28 states.

Salient Features

• • Core Principles
    1. Convergence (of Central & State Schemes)
    2. Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors) Competition among districts driven by a spirit of mass Movement.
  • Core Strategy
    1. States as main drivers.
    2. Work on the strength of each district.
    3. Make development as a mass movement in these districts.
    4. Identify weakness and the strength of each district, to act as a catalyst for development.
    5. Real Time Monitoring and Ranking of states to spur a sense of competition.
    6. To ensure transparency, the dashboard will be open to the public to monitor the progress of the Aspirational Districts.
    7. Districts shall aspire to become State’s best to Nation’s best.

Institutional Framework

• • At Gol level, this programme is anchored in NITI Aayog. Individual Ministries have also been given responsibility of districts. States are the main drivers.
  • For each district, officers at the level of Joint Secretary/ Additional Secretary have been nominated to become the ‘Central Prabhari Officers’.
  • It has been envisaged that using their experience, these officers would form a team with representatives of the State Governments and would act as a bridge between Centre and State. An Empowered Committee under the Convenorship of the CEO, NITI Aayog will help in the convergence of various government schemes and streamlining of efforts.
  • States have been requested to form a committee under Chief Secretary to implement the programme.
  • States have nominated Nodal Officers and state level Prabhari Officers.

Selection of backward districts

• • The 117 districts were identified from 28 states, at least one from each state. 5 key performance parameters (49 key performance indicators)
    1. Health & Nutrition (antenatal/postnatal care, gender parity, health of new-barns, health infra)
    2. Education (learning outcome, school infra, pupil-teacher ratio)
    3. Agriculture & Water Resources (agri output/yield, inputs, insurance, market support)
    4. Basic Infrastructure (Toilet, drinking water, electricity, road connectivity etc.)
    5. Financial Inclusion & Skill Development (up-take of govt. schemes like Jan Dhan, Atal Pension Yojna; ease of financing, skilling of youth/marginalized section etc.)
  • These districts also include 35 Left Wing Extremism affected areas, selected by Ministry of Home Affairs.

 

NATIONAL MISSION ON TRANSFORMATIVE MOBILITY AND BATTERY STORAGE

Objectives

• • To promote “clean, connected, shared and sustainable” mobility initiative in the country.

Salient Features

• • It will have an inter-ministerial steering committee, chaired by CEO, NITI Aayog that will coordinate among key stakeholders to integrate various initiatives to transform mobility in India.
  • It will support and implement Phased Manufacturing Programme (valid for 5 years till 2024) for large scale, export competitive integrated batteries and cellmanufacturing Giga plants in India.
  • The Mission will launch another programme to localize production across entire Electric vehicle value chain and finalise its details.
  • The Mission will have ‘Make in India’ strategy for Electric Vehicle components and battery technologies.

 

NATIONAL NUTRITION STRATEGY (NNS)

Objectives

• • The National Nutrition Strategy aims at Kuposhan Mukt Bharat linked to Swachh Bharat and Swasth Bharat,
  • The nutrition strategy envisages a framework in the four proximate determinants of nutrition – uptake of health services, food, drinking water & sanitation and income & livelihoods.

Salient Features

• • Reduce all forms of malnutrition by 2030 (alignment with SDG) – with a focus on the most vulnerable and critical age groups
  • Convergence of initiatives and Innovative service delivery models
  • Launching National Nutrition Mission – similar to the National Health Mission to enable integration of various schemes related to Nutrition.
  • Decentralized approach of decision making – The focus will be on the local bodies at urban and rural level.
  • Focus on improving healthcare and nutrition among children – for eg. promotion of breastfeeding for the first 6 month, universal access to infant and young child care (including ICDS and creches), enhanced care and management of severely undernourished and sick children, bi-annual vitamin A supplements and de-worming for children etc
  • Governance reforms – including convergence of state and district implementation plans for ICDS, NHM and Swachh Bharat; focus on the most vulnerable communities in districts with the highest levels of child malnutrition, and service delivery models based on evidence of impact.
  • Nutrition Social Audits – to track the children and their health progress at national & state levels, a website & necessary apps will be created for this.
  • National Nutrition Surveillance System – Undernourished endemic zones will be mapped for identifying ‘high risk and vulnerable districts’.

 

NITI FORUM FOR NORTHEAST

Objectives

• • To review the development status in the NER.
  • To identify various constraints on the way of accelerated, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the North East Region (NER) of the country.
  • To recommend suitable interventions for addressing identified constraints.

Salient Features

Composition

• • • Chairperson – Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog and
    • Co-Chaired by Minister of State (1/C), Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER).
    • Members – CEO, NITI Aayog, Chief Secretaries of 8 North-eastern states, Secretaries of key Union Ministries/ Departments, retired bureaucrats, economists and academicians.
    • Secretary, North East Council (NEC} is the Member Secretary of the Forum.
    • Secretariat – The forum will have its Secretariat in the Ministry of DoNER.

Focus Areas

• • Key focus of development projects in the NER will be based on the concept of “HIRA” (Highways, Inland Waterways, Railways and Airways) as spelled out by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Emphasis will be made on Education, Health and Skill Development in the region. It will also have emphasis on Pisciculture, Horticulture, Tourism, Dairy, Tea, Bamboo etc.

 

STRATEGY ON RESOURCE EFFICIENCY

Objectives

• • It is the first ever policy document to emphasize resource productivity in India
  • The document is developed with the recommendations from the Indian Resource Efficiency Programme (IREP) launched by (MoEFCC) and Indian Resource Panel (lnRP) in April 2017.
  • The strategy focuses on abiotic material resources, excluding fossil fuels, of two strategic sectors­, Construction & Automobile.

Key elements RE Strategy

• • Institutional development including setting up an inter-departmental committee and Task force of experts
  • Capacity development at various levels for strengthening of capacities and sharing of best
  • practices
  • Launch of Short term course on RE under the MHRD GIAN Programme
  • Development of an indicator monitoring framework for baseline analysis, resource index.
  • Promotional tools – Eco-labelling, recycling standards, R&D and technology development, green public procurement, industrial clusters, awareness generation
  • Regulation, economic instruments – viability gap funding, policy reforms across life cycle stages.

Indian Resource Panel (lnRP)

• • • lnRP officially unveiled in November, 2015
    • It is an advisory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
    • India is one of the first country among emerging countries to constitute a National Resource Panel.
    • It was created with support of lndo-German bilateral cooperation
    • The lnRP will issue recommendations to Indian businesses and policy-makers on improving the general conditions for resource efficiency
    • It will also prepare strategic roadmap for utilisation of secondary resources for meeting the developmental needs.

 

OTHER INITIATIVES

 

 

 

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