NITI Aayog to start lecture series on Transforming India

NITI Aayog is to begin an annual lecture series, later this month, under the theme of Transforming India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the first one on August 26, to be addressed by the deputy PM of Singapore, Tharman Shanmurugatnam, titled India in the Global Economy.

It will be followed by a panel discussion.

All Cabinet ministers are expected to attend, with invitations to chief ministers, too, in this annual lecture series on economic affairs. Officials said the idea was to create a brand around Transforming India. Each year, eminent personalities from various fields, including Presidents and PMs, would be invited to share their ideas on India.

NEW INITIATIVE

• The first part of annual lecture series  will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 26
   
• Singapore Deputy PM to deliver first lecture later  this month
   
• Each year, eminent personalities from various fields, including Presidents and PMs, would be invited to share their ideas on India
   
• The aim is to bring policy makers, academics, experts and administrators of global repute to India, for the benefit of policy makers in states and at the Centre

“Over the years, the plan is to build this lecture series into a brand in itself, on the lines of such a series in Harvard and other big universities and think tanks,” a senior official said.

The aim is to bring policy makers, academics, experts and administrators of global repute to India, for the benefit of policy makers in states and at the Centre. The series will be aimed at learning from global experience in governance and development.

Modi, in a recent address to the Aayog, gave some of his own ideas on Transforming India. These are expected to become part of the 15-year ‘vision document’ the Aayog is preparing.

The PM said he wanted the Aayog to think in advance on the demand for food in the next 15 years, domestic and foreign sources from where this could come and a clear road map for meeting the requirements.

He'd also talked of long-term agro-procurement agreements with countries, in return for technology transfer. And, directed the Aayog to plan for a zero-import policy in agriculture.

Food prices pushed retail price index-based inflation to 6.07 per cent in July, the highest since the new data series was launched in December 2014. The governments of Singapore and India are negotiating changes in their double taxation avoidance agreement. India is officially projected to grow by 7.2-7.75 per cent (it was 7.6 per cent in FY16) in the current financial year, at a time of dull global growth.

Five days after the lecture would come the gross domestic product data for the first quarter of 2016-17.

Global headwinds are not letting India’s merchandise exports grow. Outbound shipment rose by 1.3 per cent in June, after 18 months of contraction. Then, in July, these fell by 6.8 per cent.