NITI Aayog rolls out three year action agenda -Governance Now

NITI Aayog rolls out three year action agenda

The three year action agenda is in draft form and will be soon put in the public domain.

Pratap Vikram Singh | April 25, 2017 | New Delhi

#NITI Aayog #action agenda #Bibek Debroy #strategy agenda #SBI #electricity #CPSEs

Even as a vision and a strategy agenda is in "advanced stages" of finalisation at NITI Aayog, the government think tank has released a draft three year action agenda for public consultation.

The draft action agenda, divided in seven parts and 24 chapters, proposes to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3 percent of the GDP by 2018-19, and revenue deficit to 0.9 percent of the GDP by 2019-20, said Arvind Panagariya, vice chairman, NITI Aayog. The draft proposes a tentative mid-term expenditure framework for the centre. It proposes sector wise expenditure allocation for three years.

It proposes to enhance labour market flexibility by reforming key laws. It also highlights the issue of non-performing assets (NPA). It propounds addressing "high and rising share of NPA in India's banks through supporting the auction of larger assets to private asset reconstruction companies and strengthening the State Bank of India led ARC (asset reconstruction companies)".

In urban development, it suggests to bring down prices to make housing affordable through increased supply of land.

In the area of energy, it advocates for "consumer friendly measures such as provision of electricity for all households by 2022, LPG connection to all BPL households, elimination of black carbon by 2022 and extension of city gas distribution programme to 100 smart cities”.

It also proposes reduction of cross subsidy in the power sector to ensure competitive supply of electricity to industry and reform the coal sector by setting up a regulator, encouraging commercial mining and improving labour productivity.

It underlines implementation of the roadmap on closing loss making PSEs and strategic disinvestment of 20 identified CPSEs. It proposes to “expand the government’s role in public health and quality education”.

It advocates tackling “tax evasion, expanding the tax base and simplifying the tax system through reforms”.

The new development agenda focuses on India 15 years down the line. It focuses on decentralized planning and development. It follows the government’s broader framework of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’, said Bibek Debroy, member, NITI Aayog.

This marks an end to the five year plans, which shaped the development agenda of India after the independence – making the 12th five year plan, which ended this year, as the last of the five year plans. Now the government will have a vision document focusing on 15 years, the strategy agenda focused on seven years and an action plan for three years.

The three year agenda requires executive action. The seven year strategy requires legislative action and the 15 years vision agenda will require institutional and constitutional changes, Debroy said.

The three year action agenda is still in draft form and will be soon put in the public domain.

Comments

Other News

Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure released

The final ‘Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure’ by ‘India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion and Development’ was released in New Delhi on Monday. The Task Force was led by the

How the Great War of Mahabharata was actually a world war

Mahabharata: A World War By Gaurang Damani Sanganak Prakashan, 317 pages, Rs 300 Gaurang Damani, a Mumbai-based el

Budget expectations, from job creation to tax reforms…

With the return of the NDA to power in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, all eyes are now on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s full budget for the FY 2024-25. The interim budget presented in February was a typical vote-on-accounts, allowing the outgoing government to manage expenses in

How to transform rural landscapes, design 5G intelligent villages

Futuristic technologies such as 5G are already here. While urban users are reaping their benefits, these technologies also have a potential to transform rural areas. How to unleash that potential is the question. That was the focus of a workshop – “Transforming Rural Landscape:

PM Modi visits Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh in Moscow

Prime minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by president Vladimir Putin, visited the All Russian Exhibition Centre, VDNKh, in Moscow Tuesday. The two leaders toured the Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh. The Rosatom pavilion, inaugurated in November 2023, is one of the largest exhibitions on the histo

Let us pledge to do what we can for environment: President

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday morning spent some time at the sea beach of the holy city of Puri, a day after participating in the annual Rath Yatra. Later she penned her thoughts about the experience of being in close commune with nature. In a message posted on X, she said: