Centre Reconstitutes NITI Aayog; Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Allies Kumaraswamy, Chirag, Lalan Included In New Composition

The Centre has reorganised the NITI Aayog and included some senior ministers of the NDA government including Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who has been made one of its ex-officio members.

New Delhi:The Centre on Tuesday reorganised the NITI Aayog and included some senior ministers of the NDA government including Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who has been made one of its ex-officio members.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue to be the chairman of NITI Aayog while Suman K Berry will be the vice-chairperson of NITI Aayog. Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Professor Ramesh Chandra, Dr. V.K. Paul and Arvind Virmani have been made full-time members.

As for the ex-officio members of NITI Aayog, it includes Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Apart from these, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Health Minister JP Nadda, Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy, MSME Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, Panchayati Raj Minister Rajiv Ranjan aka Lalan Singh, Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar, Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu, Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, Women and Child Welfare Minister Annapurna Devi, Food Processing Minister Chirag Paswan and Minister of State with Independent Charge Rao Indrajit Singh have been appointed as special invitee members.

In the previous NITI Aayog, former Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was among the ex-officio members, a position that has now been handed over to Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Last time Piyush Goyal and Ashwini Vaishnav were also among the special invitees, but this time both of them have not been included. In their place, all the senior ministers of the allied parties have been given a place, highlighting the significance of allies in Modi 3.0.

What work does NITI Aayog do?

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog was formed via a resolution of the Union Cabinet on 1 January 2015 to replace the Planning Commission.

The Governing Council of NITI Aayog, comprising Chief Ministers of all the States and Union Territories with legislatures and Lt Governors of other Union Territories, came into effect on 16 February 2015 via a notification by the Cabinet Secretariat. The Governing Council was reconstituted vide a notification dated 19 February 2021 by the Cabinet Secretariat.

The Governing Council is the premier body tasked with evolving a shared vision of national priorities and strategies, with the active involvement of States, in shaping the development narrative. The Governing Council, which embodies the objectives of cooperative federalism, presents a platform to discuss inter-sectoral, inter-departmental and federal issues to accelerate the implementation of the national development agenda.

So far, seven meetings of the Governing Council have been held under the chairmanship of the Hon'ble Prime Minister with Chief Ministers/Lt Governors of the States/UTs and other members of the Governing Council.