(a) whether the promotion of cooperative federalism is one of the major objectives of the NITI Aayog;
(b) if so, the details of the efforts made by the NITI Aayog for the promotion of cooperative federalism in the country since its inception;
(c) whether the NITI Aayog has been successful in promoting cooperative federalism through sustained constructive cooperation and policy guidance; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS
(RAO INDERJIT SINGH)
(a) to (d): Yes Madam. As mandated, promotion of cooperative federalism is one of the major objectives of the NITI Aayog. Within the mandate, NITI Aayog has taken following steps, inter-alia, to promote cooperative federalism:
i. Within the framework of cooperative federalism, NITI Aayog organized National Conferences as a platform for sharing knowledge and experiences amongst the States /UTs in implementing the best practices.
ii. NITI Aayog has initiated a policy to provide institutional support to States to deliver excellence in social and infrastructure sector through an initiative of “Development Support Services for States for infrastructure (D3S-i) projects”. The key objective of this policy is to support State Governments for implementation of projects that are critical for development of State/region in a timely and cost effective manner. Presently, 10 projects have been selected from eight States for undertaking under the initiatives of D3S-i.
iii. In education and Health, NITI Aayog has initiated a Project-SATH for providing “Sustainable Action for Transforming Human capital (SATH)”. In Education sector, this project is being implemented in three States namely, Jharkhand, Odisha & Madhya Pradesh, and for Health sector, this is being implemented in Assam.
iv. NITI Aayog has initiated web portal for social indicators by establishing an outcome monitoring framework in critical economic and social development sectors namely, Healthcare, Education & Water Sector with the primary objective of determining performance of various States through their Key Performance Indicators and thereby nurture healthy competition among the States under the spirit of cooperative federalism.
v. Total number of 115 aspirational districts have been identified based on composite index which encompasses percentage of households depend on manual labour, performance of districts in terms of health, nutrition, education and infrastructure. These districts require a focused attention by the State Governments and the Central Government for rapid transformation.
vi. A Task Force on Agriculture Development has been constituted by NITI Aayog to coordinate and develop synergy with the Central Ministries and State Governments, to recommend strategies for re-invigorating Agriculture, to formulate strategies for reforms, for innovation and technology diffusion, and to identify successful experiments and programmes from which all States and UTs may learn.
vii. NITI Aayog has convened four Governing Council Meetings upto July, 2018. The First Meeting of the Governing Council was held on 8th February, 2015 with the prime objective of fostering cooperative federalism and addressing national issues through active participation of the States. The Second Meeting of the Governing Council took place on 15th July, 2015 and the Third Meeting was held on 23 April 2017, which laid down milestones in shaping the country’s development agenda through strategy and vision documents. The Fourth Meeting of the Governing Council was held on 17th June, 2018. It laid down a platform to discuss inter-sectoral, inter-departmental and federal issues in order to accelerate the implementation of the national development agenda. 23 Chief Ministers and the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, apart from Union Ministers had attended the Fourth meeting of the Governing Council.
viii. NITI Forum for North Eastern has been constituted by NITI Aayog on 20th February, 2018 with the mandate to identify various constraints on the development of the North East Region and to recommend suitable interventions.
ix. Vice Chairman, Members and Senior Officers of NITI Aayog visited various States for participating meetings attended by Chief Ministers of the concerned States along with State Officials to discuss the State specific issues.
The responses from the States against the initiatives taken by the NITI Aayog have been encouraging. NITI Aayog has been successfully undertaking its mandate for promoting cooperative federalism with the cooperation and participation of States, and addressing the State specific issues under the rule of Central Government.
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