NITI Aayog releases Strategy for New India @ 75, aims for USD 4 trillion economy by 2022-23

The NITI Aayog on Wednesday unveiled its comprehensive national Strategy for New India, defining clear objectives for 2022-23, and calling for a steady acceleration of the economy to achieve a GDP growth rate of about 8 per cent on an average during 2018-23.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley released the document in the presence of NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar, Members Ramesh Chand and VK Saraswat and CEO Amitabh Kant.

The government think tank said that such a growth rate would raise the country's economy size in real terms from USD 2.7 trillion in 2017-18 to nearly USD 4 trillion by 2022-23.

The forward of the strategy document has been penned down by the Prime Minister in which he outlined the documents attempt to bring innovation, technology, enterprise and efficient management together, at the core of policy formulation and implementation.

"It will encourage discussion and debate, and invite feedback for further refining our policy approach. We believe that economic transformation cannot happen without public participation. Development must become a Jan Andolan," asserted the Prime Minister.

The document has been prepared by NITI Aayog after having in-depth consultations with all three groups of stakeholders, businessmen, academics including scientists, and government officials.

A consultation was also held with different sets of stakeholders including scientists and innovators, farmers, civil society organisations, think-tanks, labour representatives and trade unions and industry representatives.

The document incorporated suggestions received from central ministries as well as states and Union Territories.

"Over 800 stakeholders from within the government - central, state and district levels - and about 550 external experts were consulted during the preparation of the document," informed NITI Aayog in a press statement sharing details of the strategy document.

"The overarching focus of the Strategy document is to further improve the policy environment in which private investors and other stakeholders can contribute their fullest towards achieving the goals set out for New India 2022 and propel India towards a USD 5 trillion economy by 2030," it further added.

The document comprises 41 chapters and has four sections, Drivers, Infrastructure, Inclusion and Governance.

"The first section on Drivers focuses on the engines of economic performance with chapters on growth and employment, doubling of farmers' incomes; upgrading the science, technology and innovation eco-system; and promoting sunrise sectors like fintech and tourism," informed NITI Aayog.

It has also endorsed replacing the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act with the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act and expansion of e-National Agriculture market.

For ensuring the maximum employment creation, it has recommended the complete codification of labour laws and a massive effort to upscale and expand apprenticeships.

The strategy document also stressed on the need to expedite the establishment of the Rail Development Authority (RDA), which would advise or make informed decisions on an integrated, transparent and dynamic pricing mechanism for the railways.

It also envisions the establishment of 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs by 2020, delivering all government services at the state, district and gram panchayat level digitally by 2022-23 and shifting the part of the workload out of regular court system to address the backlog of pending cases.

The strategy document is a detailed exposition across 41 crucial areas which recognises the progress already made, identifies binding constraints, and suggests the way forward for achieving the clearly stated objectives.