NITI Aayog | SSC CGL Tier 2 - Study Material, Online Tests, Previous Year PDF Download

Introduction

The NITI Aayog, introduced on January 1, 2015, to succeed the Planning Commission with its 65-year legacy, prioritizes a 'Bottom – Up' approach to embody the vision of "Maximum Governance, Minimum Government." This reflects the essence of Cooperative Federalism, positioning Niti Aayog as a think tank and advisory body for the government.

Background

• The Planning Commission was initially set up in 1950 as an agency to direct investment activity in a country.
• Planning Commission of India had two key duties to perform –
  • To implement five-year plan and
  • To provide the finances to the state.
• The disenchantment with the Planning Commission could be traced on two important fronts:
  • The perception that it was not able to capture the new realities of macroeconomic management at the national level
  • It had not been conducive to sound fiscal relations between the Union and the States.
• This did not fit well with the imperative for an inclusive and equitable path of economic development in India.
• The Planning Commission which has a legacy of 65 years has been replaced by the Niti Aayog on January 1, 2015, with emphasis on the ‘Bottom – Up’ approach to envisage the vision of “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”, echoing the spirit of Cooperative Federalism. NITI Aayog envisaged as a think tank and advisory body of the government.
• It aims to construct a strong state that will help to create a dynamic and strong nation. This helps India to emerge as a major economy in the world.

 NITI Aayog’s creation has two hubs –

• Team India: It leads the participation of Indian states with the central government.
• The Knowledge and Innovation Hub: It builds the institution’s think tank capabilities.

Objectives of NITI AAYOG:

• Foster cooperative federalism by providing structured support initiatives and mechanisms to States continuously, recognizing the correlation between strong States and a strong nation.

• Develop mechanisms for formulating credible plans at the village level, progressively aggregating them at higher levels of government.

• Ensure that, in areas specifically referred to, the interests of national security are incorporated into economic strategy and policy.

• Pay special attention to sections of society at risk of not benefiting adequately from economic progress.

• Provide advice and promote partnerships between key stakeholders, national and international Think Tanks, as well as educational and policy research institutions.

• Create a knowledge, innovation, and entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners, and other partners.

• Offer a platform for resolving inter-sectoral and inter-departmental issues to accelerate the implementation of the development agenda.

• Maintain a state-of-the-art Resource Centre, serving as a repository of research on good governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development, and facilitate their dissemination to stakeholders.

• Serve as a nodal agency for assessing the SDG India Index.

Guiding Principles of NITI AAYOG

• In carrying out the above functions, NITI Aayog will be guided by an overall vision of development which is –
• Antodaya: Prioritize service and uplift of the poor, marginalized and downtrodden, as enunciated in Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay’s idea of ‘Antodaya’. Development is incomplete and meaningless if it does not reach the farthest individual.
• Inclusion: Empower vulnerable and marginalized sections, redressing identity-based inequalities of all kinds of gender, region, religion, caste or class.
• Village: Integrate our villages into the development process.
• Demographic dividend: Harness our greatest asset, the people of India: by focussing on their development, through education and skilling, and their empowerment, through productive livelihood opportunities.
• People’s Participation: Transform the developmental process into a people-driven one, making an awakened and participative citizenry(including the NRI community) the driver of good governance.
• Governance: Nurture an open, transparent, accountable, pro-active and purposeful style of governance, transitioning focus from
• Sustainability: Maintain sustainability at the core of our planning and development process, building on our ancient tradition of respect for the environment.

Planning Commission VIZ-A-VIZ NITI AAYOG

Composition of NITI

• Chairperson: The Prime Minister

• Vice-Chairperson: To be appointed by the Prime Minister

• Governing Council: Comprising Chief Ministers of all states and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.

• Regional Council: Addressing specific regional issues, chaired by the Prime Minister or his nominee and comprising Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors.

• Ad-hoc Membership: Two members in an ex-officio capacity from leading research institutions on a rotational basis.

• Ex-Officio Membership: Up to four members from the Union council of ministers, nominated by the Prime Minister.

• Chief Executive Officer: Appointed by the Prime Minister for a fixed tenure, holding the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.

• Special Invitees: Experts and specialists with domain knowledge nominated by the Prime Minister.

The NITI Aayog is Based on the 7 Pillars of Effective Governance

• Pro-people: it fulfils the aspirations of society as well as individuals
• Pro-activity: in anticipation of and response to citizen needs
• Participation: involvement of the citizenry
• Empowering: Empowering, especially women in all aspects
• Inclusion of all: inclusion of all people irrespective of caste, creed, and gender
• Equality: Providing equal opportunity to all especially for youth
• Transparency: Making the government visible and responsive

Relevance of NITI AAYOG

• Cooperative Federalism: NITI Aayog, through its diverse composition, provides enhanced state representation, facilitating direct interactions with ministries and enabling the swift resolution of issues.

• Competitive Federalism: NITI Aayog issues reports such as "Healthy States, Progressive India," offering performance-based rankings that foster a spirit of competitive federalism among states.

• Greater Accountability: The establishment of the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office by NITI Aayog ensures real-time data collection on the performance of various ministries, enhancing accountability.

• Think Tank of Innovative Ideas: NITI Aayog serves as a conduit for innovative ideas from diverse sources, including industry, academia, civil society, and foreign specialists, channeling them into the government system for implementation. This process improves governance and facilitates the adoption of innovative measures for effective public service delivery.

• Convergence for Resolution: Acting as a common point for addressing similar issues across sectors and states, NITI Aayog serves as a convergence point and platform for discussing and resolving these challenges.

Concern and Challenges

• Biases towards govt & private sector – As a think tank, NITI Aayog should maintain a respectable intellectual distance from the government of the day.
• Financial constraint- NITI Aayog has no powers in granting discretionary funds to states, which renders it toothless to undertake a transformational intervention.
• Only recommendatory body- It acts as an advisory body only that advises the government on various issues without ensuring the enforceability of its ideas.
• Lack of decentralization power- One of the envisaged goals of the NITI Aayog was to develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these progressively at the higher level
• Missed opportunities for transformative change- The body has missed some opportunities to make a qualitative difference.
• Inadequate support to the states.

Criticism

• NITI Aayog cannot transform a deeply unequal society into a modern economy that ensures the welfare of all its citizens, irrespective of their social identity.
• It has no role in influencing public or private investment.
• It does not seem to have an influence on policymaking with long-term consequences. For instance, demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax.
• If it is a think-tank, it has to maintain a respectable intellectual distance from the Govt. of the day.
• Instead, we see uncritical praise of the Govt-sponsored schemes/programmes.
• It is not able to answer specific questions like, why 90% are working in the unorganised sector? and moreover, as on date, more and more in-formalisation is taking place in the organised sector.
• The Labour force participation rate of women is also declining, when neighbours like Bangladesh are registering an increase.

 Suggestion to Improve NITI

• Balancing with finance commission: NITI Aayog should be given a funding role so that it can help deal with the development experience between states.
• Another possibility is to convert the Finance Commission into a permanent body that can oversee fiscal transfer mechanisms rather than just give a tax-sharing formula every five years.
• Increasing accountability: Bureaucracy will need to change from generalist to specialist, and its accountability will have to be based on outcomes achieved, not inputs or funds spent. NITI Aayog should spell out how these reforms will be implemented.
• Allocation of more funds: Towards the task of cooperative federalism, NITI Aayog 2.0 should receive significant resources (say 1% to 2% of the GDP) to promote accelerated growth in States that are lagging, and overcome their historically conditioned infrastructure deficit, thus reducing the developmental imbalance.
• More stakeholder involvement: It should invite research inputs and recommendations of expert members on identified areas. It should synthesize recommendations based on the empirical weight of the research. This will cut time, cost and effort and will increase timely policy inputs for the government.

Achievements of NITI AAYOG

Launching of various initiatives and programmes

• Measuring performance and ranking States on outcomes in critical sectors
• Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital (SATH)
• Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat
• Public-Private Partnership in Health
• Development Support Services to States (DSSS) for Development of Infrastructure
• Resolution of pending issues of States with Central Ministries
• Aspirational District Programme (ADP): to realise the vision of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” and ensure that the growth process of India must be inclusive.
• India’s growth process remains inclusive

Indexes and Initiatives of NITI

• SDG India Index
• Composite Water Management Index
• Atal Innovation Mission
• SATH programme
• Aspirational District Programme
• School Education Quality Index
• District Hospital Index
• Health Index 2019 – (Healthy states, progressive India)
• Composite Health Index
• Digital Transformation Index
• Agriculture Marketing And Farmer Friendly reform Index
• India Innovation Index
• Women Entrepreneurship Platform
• Good Governance Index (NITI with other agencies)

Aspirational Districts Program

• Districts marked as Aspirational are those in India facing poor socio-economic indicators, and their improvement can contribute significantly to overall human development in the country.

• 115 districts were identified from 28 states, with at least one district chosen from each state.

• At the Government of India level, NITI Aayog anchors the program, while individual Ministries take responsibility for driving progress in specific districts.

• The program's objective is to monitor real-time progress in these aspirational districts.

• ADP is structured around 49 indicators across five thematic areas, closely focusing on improving Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.

• With states as the main drivers, ADP aims to leverage the strengths of each district, identify quick wins for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.

The program's broad contours include:
Impact of ADP

• Decentralization of Development: ADP focuses on outcomes that enable local experimentation based on a firm appreciation of ground realities.
• Inclusive approach: The delta ranking of the Aspirational Districts combines the innovative use of data with pragmatic administration, keeping the district at the locus of inclusive development.
• Improved Implementation: Spurred by competition based on outcomes, local governments target their efforts and improve programme implementation and design.

 Challenges Associated with ADP

• ADP is affected by the issue pertaining to insufficient budgetary resources.
• ADP is implemented by multiple ministries which leads to a lack of coordination.
• High-quality administrative data is critical to improving programme implementation and design at the local level.
• The Delta ranking itself is largely focused on assessing quantity rather than quality.

Way Forward 

• More simplified ranking indexes needed with few but carefully chosen output and outcome measures that can more clearly signal national development targets.
• Financial autonomy to local governments should be provided.
• Independent surveys to be used to validate administrative data, will help improve data quality.
• Building each districts internal capacity to produce reliable and actionable data, and promoting a culture of data use, can be made a priority for the ADP.

NITI AAYOG @75:

• NITI Aayog, the government think tank, has introduced the Strategy for New India @ 75.

• This all-encompassing national strategy outlines specific objectives for the year 2022-23.

• The strategy offers a comprehensive exploration of forty-one critical areas.

• In conjunction with the achievements to date, the strategy pinpoints limiting factors and proposes pathways to attain the stated objectives.

• Developed through extensive consultations, the strategy incorporates input from three key stakeholder groups: business individuals, academics, including scientists, and government officials.

Recent Developments

NITI Aayog has been instrumental in preparing the Viksit Bharat @2047 vision blueprint, aiming to transform India into a developed nation by its centenary of independence. It outlines:

• A high-growth, inclusive economy

• Universal access to quality health, education, and housing

• A digitally empowered and environmentally sustainable India
  The draft was finalized in early 2025 with inter-ministerial and state-level consultations.

2. Expansion of the Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP)

Building on the success of the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), the Aspirational Blocks Programme (launched in 2023) has been scaled up in 2024–25, covering 500 most underdeveloped blocks. It emphasizes:

• Real-time monitoring via CHAMPIONS portal

• Focused interventions in health, nutrition, education, and basic infrastructure

• Use of data-driven governance and performance-based incentives

3. National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2024

NITI Aayog released the updated MPI report in 2024, based on NFHS-5 and other data sources. Key highlights:

• Multidimensional poverty fell from 24.8% (2015–16) to 11.3% (2019–21)

• Substantial improvements noted in sanitation, nutrition, and electricity access

• Continued regional disparities across central and eastern India

4. National Data & Analytics Platform (NDAP) 2.0

In 2025, the NDAP platform was upgraded with:

• District-level and panchayat-level data sets

• Interactive dashboards and GIS integration

• Support for evidence-based policymaking across ministries and states

5. Green Growth Initiatives

NITI Aayog has played a proactive role in:

• Finalizing the Green Hydrogen Policy (2023–24)

• Supporting state-level EV policies and the Battery Swapping Framework

• Coordinating inter-ministerial work on climate finance, carbon markets, and sustainable agriculture

6. Health Sector Reforms

NITI Aayog provided policy support for:

• National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) and Unified Health Interface (UHI)

• Scaling up PM-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission

• Introduction of Digital Health Incentives for hospitals and start-ups (2024)

7. Women-Led Development Push

In alignment with India’s G20 Presidency (2023), NITI Aayog continued promoting Women-Led Development in 2024–25 via:

• Expansion of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP)

• Partnerships with private sector for financial literacy and skilling

• Integration of gender-disaggregated indicators in policy monitoring

8. Localisation of SDGs

NITI Aayog enhanced localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by:

• Expanding SDG Urban Index and introducing District SDG Index

• Collaborating with PRIs to create Gram Panchayat-level SDG scorecards

• Mainstreaming SDGs into state planning processes (2024–25)

9. International Collaboration and Innovation

In 2024–25, NITI Aayog entered into key collaborations:

• MoUs with OECD and UNDP for governance innovation

• Exchange of best practices with ASEAN and African think tanks

• Participation in global platforms on AI regulation, climate resilience, and digital public infrastructure

10. New India Innovation Index (2024)

The India Innovation Index, revised in 2024, introduced:

• Inclusion of grassroots innovation and start-up ecosystem metrics

• Assessment of state-level support to research and development

• Enhanced focus on digital literacy and IP creation