Government think tank, NITI Aayog, on Wednesday (17 May) said it would team up with premier educational institutions and research institutions for the purpose of pursuing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a ‘New India’ by 2022.
“This is the first ever initiative to bring a large number of institutions cutting across diverse domain themes to deliberate together on the way forward for the inclusive development of the country,” NITI Aayog said in a statement.
It has teamed up with 32 premier institutions, which includes IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIM Ahmedabad, National Council of Applied Economic Research, Indian Statistical Institute, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, BML Munjal University, Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, among others.
The New India initiative aims to foster inclusiveness for women, poor and the middle-class, and hence NITI Aayog teamed up with these institutions to develop a roadmap for this initiative and achieve “inclusive development” for the masses.
The meeting saw the signing of memorandum of understandings between NITI Aayog and research institutions and think tanks across the nation to create a network of evidence-based policy research. The meeting, co-chaired by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and principal adviser Ratan P. Watal, was attended by representatives of four-state governments, including Rajasthan, Kerala, Assam and Uttar Pradesh, and was “aimed at catalysing the development process, and enhancing institutional capacity development and a field-level interface with the community for New India 2022”, the statement said.
“This network will enable efficient knowledge sharing and information exchange among all partners to fulfil their role in transformative policy reform so as to achieve a sustainable and more inclusive development in line with the National Development Agenda, Sustainable Development Goals as well as the 15-year vision, 7-year strategy, and 3-year action plan,” the statement added.
BW Reporters
The author is correspondent at BW Businessworld, he has a keen interest in sustainability and environmental economics