PM Modi, council of ministers brainstorm governance

The first day of 'Chintan Shivir' of the entire council of ministers of the Modi Government on Wednesday discussed a host of issues, including governance, reforms and outreach to women and youth on welfare and development schemes, sources said.

During the over four-hour meeting, the ministers also discussed how to further improve the delivery mechanism of the Government with close coordination among different ministries and departments, the sources aware of the deliberations said.

The ministers were divided into eight groups, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with each of them, the sources said.

Modi is learnt to have taken feedback from the ministers and advised them on how to go about various aspects of the Government.

The ministers discussed issues related to governance, reforms and outreach to women and youth on welfare and development schemes, the sources said. The other issues that were deliberated by the ministers included 'Jan Vishwas Se Jan Aadhaar', reforms in all aspects of the Government and priorities towards Viksit Bharat@2047.

The two-day brainstorming session has been called for stocktaking, improving coordination, preparing the future agenda, planning, reviewing the work underway on welfare schemes, and infrastructure projects, among others, the sources said. The exercise of taking stock of different aspects of the Government through such a conclave is expected to be held next week too, they said.

The Viksit Bharat exercise has been underway since 2021, with 10 sectoral groups of secretaries constituted to prepare short-term and long-term roadmaps to achieve the goal. Vast stakeholder consultation was also done for this exercise.

Since then, there have been eight presentations and discussions before the Council of Ministers on different aspects of Viksit Bharat@2047.

The ongoing 'Chintan Shivir' takes this process forward, the sources said.

It brings together the work being done by groups of secretaries, ministries and departments, Cabinet Secretariat and NITI Aayog, including reforms, ease of living, reduction of compliances and other governance priorities.

Progress of Government schemes, policy implementation, time management, inter-ministerial coordination and public service delivery are issues that figure in the agenda of the conclave.