Appropriate forum to float governance ideas
The very idea of bringing in the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog was to strengthen the foundations of cooperative federalism. But, very few have realised the worth of creating a new administrative machinery like this, and this lack of understanding has overshadowed the noble goals set by the entity. Since its creation on January 1, 2015, it has made a number of efforts to channelise the States to act in a manner that largely promotes federal interest. It is meant to serve as a state-of-the-art resource centre to reduce the gap between policymakers and researchers. It is supposed to introduce high quality monitoring and evaluation of the existing and previous policies of the Government. In the previous regimes, States had not been actively involved in the policy-planning process under the Planning Commission.
The plan panel had assumed the role of a ‘super Cabinet’, which used to allocate resources for the development of the States based on its wisdom. As an extra-constitutional body, it used to hold considerable sway over the economic policies of both the Centre and the States. This often resulted in an acrimonious relationship between the Centre and the States. Besides, the Commission was accused of encroaching on the boundaries of other vital constitutional bodies like the Finance Commission, as nearly 30 per cent of total Central transfers to the States were made through it. It was said to have failed to achieve the objectives of equitable and balanced development of the nation in its 65 years of long tenure. It remained an institution for armchair intellectuals without having any realistic vision for furthering the nation. Hence, the establishment of the Niti Aayog was a right move by the Government to steer the country to the next level of development.
The recent decision of the Union Government to ask the Niti Aayog to review the performance of nearly 500 autonomous bodies like the University Grants Commission, the Delhi Development Authority, the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research etc, shows how the organisation has been playing a major role in shaping new policy frameworks for the country. Indeed, these organisations have been making losses, as per the Expenditure Management Commission headed by former Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan.
Some estimates showed that this loss could be over Rs60,000 crore annually. Now, the Niti Aayog's main responsibility is to find ways to slash wasteful expenditures of these mammoth autonomous bodies. It has been observed that most of these bodies have been working for years with little oversight. It is time to reduce or save the tax-payers’ money. Thus, the role of Niti Aayog must be seen in a new light, where it can offer plausible policy measures to the Government and guide it till the implementation stage. The need of the hour for the Government is to map out perennial problems and create strategies to handle them in time. Years of lethargy accompanied by bureaucratic hassles, must now end. The ‘ease of doing business’ and making administration a true vehicle to address major public grievances, should be at the core of governance. The Niti Aayog is the right platform where out-of-the-box ideas can be generated, debated and put into practice.