The think tank of Indian Government, NITI Aayog on Wednesday released a comprehensive strategy for the Indian economy and governance.
The ‘Strategy for New India @75’ was released at a press conference by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The other dignitaries present at the conference were NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr. Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant, Members Dr. Ramesh Chand, and Dr. VK Saraswat.
The document contains a chalked-out plan with clear objectives for 2022-23. It is a comprehensive report encompassing 41 crucial areas which are in turn divided into four sections: Drivers, Infrastructure, Inclusion, and Governance.
In the wake of PM Modi‘s clarion call for establishing New India by 2022, this document—1) appreciates the progress made so far, 2) identifies the constraints, 3) makes suggestions for achieving the stated objectives.
The strategy is prepared with the active participation and thorough discussions among all groups of stakeholders- business persons, academicians, scientists, innovators, government officials, farmers, civil society organizations, labor representatives, trade unions, and industry representatives. Also, the suggestions from Union Ministers, State Ministers, and Ministers of Union Territories were incorporated.
The document is a fruit of the comprehensive discussions and suggestions from over 800 stakeholders from within the government and around 550 external experts.
The Strategy mainly aims at improving the economic policy so that the private investors and other stakeholders can liberally contribute towards achieving the clearly stated goals and drive the country towards becoming a USD 5 trillion economy by 2030.
PM Modi welcomed the strategy by saying, “We believe that economic transformation cannot happen without public participation. Development must become a Jan Andolan.”
He said that the strategy is an attempt to bring innovation, technology, enterprise, and efficient management together, at the core of policy formulation and implementation.
Contents
First Section: “Drivers of Economy”
This section focuses on the engines of India’s economy. It includes chapters on growth and employment, doubling of farmers’ incomes, upgrading the science, technology and innovation eco-system, and promoting sunrise sectors like fin-tech and tourism.
The important recommendations in this section are-
- The economy should be given a steady momentum to achieve GDP of average 8 percent during 2018-23. As a result, the size of India’s economy will increase from USD 2.7 trillion in 2017-18 to around USD 4 trillion by2022-23.
- In the ‘agriculture‘ sector, the focus should be on converting farmers to ‘agripreneurs’. This can be done by the expansion of National Agriculture Markets. Also, it requires the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act to be replaced by the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act.
- The government should propel ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’ techniques. These techniques not only reduce costs but also improve land quality and increase farmers’ incomes. Also, it has been proved that they put environmental carbon back into the land.
- To address ‘unemployment‘, an absolute codification of labor laws is required. Also, a serious effort needs to be put for expansion of apprenticeships.
- To revamp mineral exploration, the government should launch a mission named “Explore in India” which will also improve the licensing policy of minerals.
Second Section: “Infrastructure”
This section focuses on the physical base that supports growth. It outlines the key points required to enhance the competitiveness of Indian business. Also, it aims at ensuring the ‘ease of living’ for the citizens.
The important recommendations in this section are-
- The establishment of the Rail Development Authority (RDA) should be accelerated. It has already been approved and is likely to help in building an integrated, transparent and dynamic pricing mechanism for the railways.
- The share of shipment by coastal shipping and inland waterways should be doubled.
The report also suggests the development of an IT-enabled platform for the integration of different modes of transport. The platform will also promote multi-modal and digitized mobility. - The ‘Bharat Net programme‘ is slated to complete in 2019. Under this programme, all the 2.5 lakh gram panchayats will be digitally connected. All the government services should be provided digitally to the state, district, and gram panchayat levels by2022-23.
Third Section: “Inclusion”
Under this section, the strategy throws light on the dire need of investing in the capabilities of the citizens. Three important themes are covered under this– Health, Education and bringing the marginalized into the mainstream.
The important recommendations in this section are-
- Ayushman Bharat programme should be implemented successfully such that 1,50,000 health and wellness centers are established across the country. The report also proposed the introduction of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan (PM-JAY).
- The government should create a focal point for public health at the central level with the state services running parallelly.
- The quality of school education system should be revamped. This can be achieved by establishing a new innovation ecosystem at the ground level via at least 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs by 2020.
- A nationwide ‘Electronic Educational Registry’ should be maintained for tracking every child’s learning outcomes.
- The government needs to further push for affordable housing in urban areas. This will not only improve the living conditions of the workers but also provide a strong impetus to the economic growth of the country.
Fourth Section: “Governance”
This section transcended into ‘good governance’ structures and devised processes to achieve better development.
The important recommendations in this section are-
- The report presses on the need to implement the recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission to change the context of emerging technologies and the growing complexity of the economy.
- A new autonomous body named the Arbitration Council of India needs to be set up to grade arbitral institutions and accredit arbitrators to make the arbitration process cost-effective and speedy, and to prevent the need for court intervention.
- The backlogs of pending cases need to be addressed to shift a part of the workload out of the judiciary.
- “Swachh Bharat Mission” should be expanded to cover initiatives for landfills, plastic waste, and municipal waste. It can also generate wealth from waste.