On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the eighth governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog in the new Convention Centre in Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. The theme of the meeting was ‘Viksit Bharat @2047: Role of Team India’, with the goal of transforming India into a developed nation by 2047. Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were among the esteemed guests present at the meeting.
Present at the meeting were Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra. Notably, seven prominent Chief Ministers were absent – Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab, Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, K Chandrashekar Rao of Telangana, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Nitish Kumar of Bihar and Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was also not present as he is on a visit to Japan and Singapore.
The NITI Aayog’s 8th Governing Council Meeting discussed eight key topics: Viksit Bharat@2047, Thrust on MSMEs, Infrastructure and Investments, eased Compliances, Women Empowerment, Health and Nutrition, Skill Development and Gati Shakti for area development and social infrastructure. To prepare for this meeting, the second Chief Secretaries Conference was conducted in January 2023 where these same topics were discussed in depth.
Besides discusses in the meeting, this 8th Governing Council Meeting of the NITI Aayog has a special cultural significance, as India is also celebrating its G20 Presidency this year. As India embraces its ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ motto, the 8th Governing Council Meeting also provided a platform for Centre-State cooperation and strategizing for the development of India by 2047.
The NITI Aayog is a government policy think tank aimed at developing national policies and reviving economic growth while focusing on the well-being of individuals, especially the disadvantaged such as women, people with disabilities, and low-income communities. It was formed in 2015 with the vision of transforming India into a prosperous and inclusive nation.
