Modi may chair maiden meet of NITI Aayog in Feb

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to chair the first full meeting of the newly constituted National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog in the first week of February, where he might solicit views on the 2015-16 Union Budget to be presented later in the same month.

Officials in the know said Modi, who is also chairman of the Aayog, is expected to be accompanied by all other permanent and ex-officio members and special invitees during the meeting. "The prime minister might also lay down the broad parameters and his vision for the Aayog during the meeting likely to be held around February 3-4," a senior official said. The National Democratic Alliance government constituted the NITI Aayog in place of the Planning Commission of India.

A NEW BEGINNING

• Full meeting may seek inputs for 2015-16 Union Budget
• Ex-officio members to form part of the meeting
• The Programme Evaluation Organisation  (PEO) under NITI Aayog could be tasked with assessing NDA’s pet projects
• PEO, in its new avatar, is expected to focus on schemes related to health and education sectors, both ongoing and newly launched

Economist Arvind Panagariya is the vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, while economist Bibek Debroy and scientist V K Saraswat are the two full-time members of the Aayog. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh are the ex-officio members.

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot and Education Minister Smriti Irani are special invitees. All are expected to be part of the meeting, officials said. Former Secretary of the Planning Commission Sindhushree Khullar is the CEO of the Aayog.

Meanwhile, officials said the Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) under the NITI Aayog might be soon tasked to evaluate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet projects such as Jan Dhan Yojana and Swatch Bharat Abhiyan.

"Though nothing has been communicated to us formally, we are ready to do the assessment as and when required," a senior PEO official said.

Presently, PEO, which is one of the oldest bodies established under the erstwhile Planning Commission, evaluates and monitors all the 60-odd Central Sector Schemes (CSS), including the 17 flagship schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Integrated Child Development Scheme and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

PEO is also looking to pre-evaluate all schemes to be launched or already announced by the Modi government in active consultation with the state governments.

According to the official, the organisation, in its new avatar, is expected to focus on schemes related to health and education sectors, both ongoing and newly launched.

Minister of State for Planning Rao Inderjit Singh in an address on a seminar on evaluation also said the government is planning to bring a 'National Policy on Evaluation' to give a firm structure to the whole process of assessing the outcomes of state-run programmes.

"With Central Plan Expenditure of the order of Rs. 5.75 lakh crore was being channelised per year for development, it was absolutely necessary that there is concurrent, comprehensive, credible and reliable evaluation," he said.