PM to seek experts' views at first NITI meeting tomorrow

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tomorrow brainstorm with experts in the maiden meeting of NITI Aayog to find ways to boost economy as government prepares to present its first full-fledged Budget later this month.
The meeting will be attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and experts such as Mukesh Butani, Nitin Desai, Parthasarathi Shome, Rajiv Lall, Swaminathan Aiyer, Vijay Kelkar, V Reddy, among others.
The government set up the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) by replacing Soviet-era Planning Commission on January 1.
Government has said that the meeting has been called for "interaction on the subject of the state of economy and for inviting suggestions on the forthcoming budget."

Jaitley will present the General Budget on February 28.
The Prime Minister is the Chairman of the NITI Aayog and its Vice-Chairman is Arvind Panagariya.

Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, Aayog's full time members Bibek Debroy and V K Saraswat, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh, ex-RBI governor Bimal Jalan, Subir Gokarn, Ashok Gulati and G N Bajpai will also be present in the meeting.
The meeting is seen as crucial as members of the newly formed body would have first-hand experience of Modi's expectations from the body which would help them in finalising the plan of action of the NITI.

The body is expected to be entrusted with the task of evaluating government's flagship programmes and monitoring of big infrastructure projects, sources said.
The meeting will also bring more clarity on the role that the new bodu will play in evolving model for revenue generation and expenditure realisation, sources added.
"It may be mentioned that a core objective of NITI is to strengthen cooperative federalism ... Consultative meeting with the CMs of states and Lt. Governors of UT which was convened by the Prime Minister on December 7, 2014 has played an important role in shaping its objectives, functions and Structure of the NITI," the government had said.

The first meeting of the Governing Council of the Aayog will be convened by Prime Minister on February 8.
The Governing Council of NITI Aayog comprises state chief ministers and Lieutenant Governors of all union territories.
"The first meeting of Governing Council is expected to provide further suggestions on setting efficient processes and mechanism of interactions between Centre and states and also between NITI and stakeholders," government had said.
It aims to ensure synergy between efforts of different levels of government and emergence of a shared national development framework.
States will give their suggestions on government's new initiatives like Swachh Mission and Make in India.