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

Mumbai issues global tender for 10 mn vaccines

Struggling with rationing and prioritising available supplies amid the acute Covid-19 vaccine shortage, the BrihanMumbai municipal corporation (BMC) has floated a global tender for supply of 1 crore doses, even as it has announced a walk-in vaccination campaign next week for select categories of citizens.

“Focus on percent of population vaccinated rather than numbers”

Expressing regret that despite being the largest producer of vaccines in the world things have fallen apart in India, Ashok Seth, a Padma Bhushan awardee and chairman of Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, has said that the focus needs to be on percentage and not the number of population vaccinated.

In Maharashtra, a wave of aid for the needy

In Maharashtra, the epicentre of India’s devastating second wave, several NGOs and civil society organisations have been at work to combat the pandemic – by spreading awareness about precautions, by helping the slum-dwellers book appointment for vaccine, by providing meals to the marginalised a

Daily recovery averages 3.28 lakh cases in 10 days

The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed the landmark of 17 crore on Monday as the Phase 3 of the nationwide vaccination drive expands further. India is the fastest country to administer 17 crore Covid vaccine doses – China took 119 days and USA 115 days

“UP situation extremely bad, govt hiding data”

India is battling the second wave of Covid-19 and infections are spreading into the interiors of the country, says Dr Anurag Bhadouria, National Spokesperson, Samajwadi Party. It is precipitated by the elections in five states, the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar and also panchayat elections in many states, he says

CoWIN to have new security feature from Saturday

The CoWIN system, the overarching digital platform for citizens seeking appointment for the Covid-19 vaccine, is introducing a new four-digit security code” in the application from Saturday to minimise a peculiar error and subsequent inconvenience to citizens. “It has been notic