After a scrutiny of NITI Aayog’s 2017-18 budgetary demands, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance today said the Aayog should be “suitably” streamlined to handle its wide range of functions, like guiding Central and state governments as a think tank, resolving inter-state disputes, conducting studies and setting up tinkering labs.

In its report presented to Parliament, the Committee headed by Mr Veerappa Moily, said its “general impression” was that “although various initiatives seem to have been launched by the NITI with much fanfare, the concrete outcomes expected from them seem to be missing”.

The committee admonished the Ministry of Planning (NITI Aayog) for delayed submission of its budgetary details.
The committee said it wants the NITI “to focus more on results, outcomes and the concretisation of well-conceived ideas and innovations”. It said “as the allocative role of the erstwhile Planning Commission is not to be played any longer, the Committee would suggest that the NITI should now function as an effective think-tank guiding the Central and State Governments in policy-making and also implementation of governmental programmes and schemes”.

Reviewing the functioning of NITI Aayog which replaced the Planning Commission two years ago, the Standing Committee said the Aayog’s two schemes, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation (SETU), were assigned Rs 150 crore and Rs 1000 crore, respectively, in the 2015-16 Budget but the provisions were later reduced to just Rs 2 crore in the absence of guidelines, rendering the well-devised schemes infructuous.

The Committee said in its previous report, it had expressed displeasure on the “lackadaisical approach and inability of NITI” to share any information on its Mid-Term Appraisal (MTA) of the 12th Five Year Plan, which comes to a close this month-end. “They (the committee) are dismayed to know that till last year, NITI had only prepared a draft appraisal document,” the report said. After its 12th Plan MTA, the NITI should institutionalise the MTAs in its working for
future, the committee said.

Expressing doubts about whether the NITI Aayog had the wherewithal to deal with its extensive responsibilities, the Committee said the Aayog had not given information on the allocations it proposed for its various initiatives. The committee’s report said it wanted to know about the data mining and analysis being done by it in its
various studies and appraisals.

“The Committee would urge upon them (NITI) to refocus on the programmes and schemes meant particularly for the social sector, as the Ministry of Finance, by its very nature, can only play a limited role in this regard due to their orientation towards fiscal consolidation,” the report said. The Committee said it expects the “present role and
mandate of NITI to be accordingly simplified with greater clarity and vision about its assigned role and functions”. It desired that the NITI focus on resolving inter-state disputes and conflicts between communities, like water disputes.