NITI Aayog’s Governing Council Meeting

In Context

• NITI Aayog’s seventh Governing Council meeting, chaired by Hon. Prime Minister was recently concluded in New Delhi.

More about the meeting

• Highlights:
  • The Governing Council discussed four key agenda items:
    • Crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in pulses, oilseeds and other Agri-commodities;
    • Implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) in school education;
    • Implementation of National Education Policy in higher education; and
    • Urban governance.
• Key points:
  • Crop diversification:
    • Crop diversification, in particular, was a key point of discussion at the meeting. 
    • India’s dependence on imported edible oils, which currently stands around 50 percent, and how that can be brought down to around 25 percent in the coming years was also discussed at the meeting. 
    • Increasing production of some pulses was also discussed.
      • Although India’s import dependence on pulses is much lower at around 7-8 percent, there is a deficiency of masoor and arhar in the country.
    • The discussion on crop diversification is significant given that there is severe water stress in some of the states. 
  • Agriculture:
    • The need was highlighted for India to focus on modernised agriculture, animal husbandry, and food processing to become self-sufficient and a global leader in the agriculture sector.    
  • Reducing imports:
    • States were advised to focus on promoting their trade, tourism and technology, to reduce their dependence on imports.
  • Urbanisation:
    • Rapid urbanisation, as perceived by Hon. PM can become India’s strength instead of weakness by leveraging technology to ensure ease of living, transparent service delivery, and improvement in the quality of life for every citizen of urban India.   
  • G20:
    • For the first time in the history of G20, India will host the G20 meetings over the year, not only in Delhi but in every State and Union Territory.
    • States are directed to set up dedicated teams for G-20 with a view to deriving maximum possible benefit from the initiative.
• Several states raised concerns around the following topics: 
  • Minimum support price (MSP) for farmers, 
  • Shortage of IAS officers, 
  • Review of GST and increased allocation of funds for states, etc.
• National Conference of Chief Secretaries:
  • As part of preparations for this meeting, the National Conference of Chief Secretaries was held in Dharamshala in June 2022 which was the culmination of the six-month-long rigorous exercise by the Centre and States.

Source: TH