Inter-linking of rivers, investor-friendly charter dominate NITI Governing Council meet

CMs of 10 states, UTs skip the meeting

New Delhi: Creation of river grids at state level for effective utilisation of water resources and preparing investor-friendly charter for widening manufacturing base across the country dominated the discourse at the 9th Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

During the meeting the Prime Minister directed NITI Aayog to prepare an ‘Investment-friendly Charter’ of parameters which would include policies, programmes and processes to be put in place for attracting investments.

“The states may be monitored on the achievement in these parameters to promote healthy competition among them for attracting investments,” NITI Aayog said in a statement after the meeting which was marred with controversy as 10 states boycotted the meeting over alleged discrimination in the central fund allocation.

Apart from the Prime Minister, who is the ex-officio chairperson of the NITI Aayog, chief ministers from 20 states and Lt Governors of 6 Union Territories attended the meeting. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the meeting alleging that her microphone had been switched off.

The absentees were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Puducherry, NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said at a media briefing. "For those who did not participate, I always say that it is their loss. The room is richer if they are there both for us and for them. Nobody is going to be excluded if they are not going to participate," Subrahmanyam said.

According to Subrahmanyam, targeting zero poverty, river grid (inter-linking of rivers) and development of industry-friendly charter were the three key takeaways from the meeting.

The theme of this year’s meeting was 'Viksit Bharat (developed India) by 2047' vision. On this occasion, the NITI Aayog released an “approach paper” that lists the vision and ways for achieving the target of a developed nation by 2047.

As per the NITI Aayog’s paper, which has been shared with the states for their input, India’s GDP needs to grow to $30 trillion by 2047 from $3.36 trillion now, 9 times increase. The per capita income needs to increase at least 8 times from $2,392 per annum now to $18,000 per annum by 2047 for the country to be categorised as developed.

“On the demographic front, we can aim for raising the average life expectancy to around 84 years, which is the best in the world. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) will be gradually declining to about 1.80 and the population stabilising at about 165 crores by 2047,” NITI Aayog noted in the approach paper.

“Being a youthful nation, the working age population would be around 112 crores, making it the single largest workforce of any nation in the world,” it said.

Subrahmanyam said NITI Aayog would come up with a vision document for Viksit Bharat in one-and-a-half month.

NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery said the government would come up with a strategy for achieving the vision of a developed India.

“The reality is that no parliament can commit its successor. So the operative time horizon is the life of this parliament. However, you can have targets for the longer-run and try and get a consensus around that,” Bery said.

“25 year horizon is very different from the 5 year horizon but this is the distinction between planning and strategy. We need to have a clear sense of strategy,” he added.