States seek central support for infra, chip projects at NITI Aayog meet

Chief ministers used the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting to seek support for infrastructure, semiconductor and development projects, while Andhra Pradesh flagged demographic sustainability

At the 11th meeting of the NITI Aayog Governing Council on Thursday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (CM) N Chandrababu Naidu called for increased national focus on demographic sustainability, while several of his counterparts, including those from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), sought central funds for schemes and projects.

 

CMs, lieutenant governors and administrators of 28 states and five Union Territories (UTs) participated in the meeting.

 

The government said it was the first instance that the CMs of all 28 states attended the meeting, whose theme was “inclusive human development”. Earlier meetings saw some of the non-NDA CMs, such as West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu’s M K Stalin — both of whose parties lost the recently concluded Assembly polls in their respective states — boycotting the same. Karnataka CM D K Shivakumar attended Thursday’s meeting. His predecessor Siddaramaiah boycotted the meeting in 2024, while his speech was read out in the meeting in 2025.

 

 

In his speech at the meeting, Andhra CM Naidu outlined his state’s population-management policy to address future workforce shortages, ageing-related challenges, and long-term economic sustainability. Naidu has for the last couple of years expressed concern at the declining fertility rate in his state, and also across southern India.

 

The Andhra CM said his government has shaped a business-friendly ecosystem, enabling the state to attract investments worth more than ₹23 trillion. He urged states to focus on strengthening infrastructure, ensuring policy stability, and expediting approvals and clearances rather than “engaging in unsustainable incentive-based competition for attracting investments”.

 

Amid the Congress’ criticism of the NDA government at the Centre’s failures in plugging key exam paper leaks, Telangana CM A Revanth Reddy said education and health care form a strong foundation for national development, and outlined the state's development model with its special focus on education, skill development, and infrastructure. Reddy said findings from the state's Social, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) survey, conducted in 2024, covering 35.5 million people across 242 castes, showed that lack of education, not money or land, was the primary cause of social backwardness.

 

Reddy proposed an “M-6 Task Force” under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for the development of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, seeking a special fund of ₹6 trillion, that is ₹1 trillion per city, for infrastructure development. He also sought the Centre’s support for infrastructure projects, semiconductor industries, and an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Hyderabad. He said the state government aimed to make Telangana a one-trillion-dollar economy by 2034.

 

Rajasthan CM Bhajanlal Sharma said the state has signed agreements worth ₹35 trillion in investments, of which projects worth over ₹9 trillion have seen groundbreaking. He said the state aims to become a $350 billion economy by 2029, supported by a current GSDP (gross state domestic product) growth rate of 10.24 per cent.

 

Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann sought special category status and a financial package for the revitalisation of the state’s border areas. Outlining the disparity in development initiatives, he said: "Only 107 villages have been covered under the recently launched Vibrant Village-II Programme, whereas more than 2,000 villages and towns are located in very close proximity to the border."

 

Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai presented a road map focused on increasing the monthly income of families in Bastar to ₹30,000 over the next three years. Currently, the monthly income of around 85 per cent of families in Bastar is less than ₹15,000, he said. Other steps that he proposed are ushering in a dairy revolution, expanding irrigation facilities across 32,000 hectares, promoting tourism as a major industry, and attracting investments in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors. Two semiconductor manufacturing units are being established in the state, he added.

 

Goa CM Pramod Sawant requested the Centre to extend the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) to the state on 90:10 basis, as in the case of northeastern and Himalayan states. "I wish to place one request before this Council, not as a grievance, but as a question of equity. Over 60 per cent of Goa's land is under forests, eco-sensitive zones, coastal regulation zones, and the Western Ghats," the CM said. Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu asked the Centre to constitute a high-level committee to assess the hill state's losses. He said these losses stem from the discontinuation of the Revenue Deficit Grant (RDG), damages from natural disasters, the deprivation of a fair amount of free power from hydropower projects, and revenue losses due to the goods and services tax (GST) regime.

 

Karnataka CM Shivakumar said around 40 per cent of Bengaluru's residents come from other states. Hence, a strong push for coping with its infrastructural upgradation requires central assistance. "We believe that the Government of India and states must work as equal partners in designing solutions tailored to diverse regional realities," he added. The CM also made several suggestions, including a one-time infrastructural grant to government schools and colleges to provide quality education on a par with the private sector. He urged the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to strictly enforce corporate social responsibility (CSR) rules, ensuring corporate funds are channeled towards upgrading rural health and education infrastructure within a given time frame. Also, he proposed that industries share their job requirements through a centralised job portal with skill parameters for the next three years.

 

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami emphasised the need for special policy support and long-term financial assistance for Himalayan states. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis shared a road map to transform the state into a $5 trillion economy by 2047. His Nagaland counterpart Neiphiu Rio sought the Centre's support for key infrastructure and development projects, while Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini said he needed a special incentive package from the Centre to develop the state into a semiconductor, data centre, and electronics manufacturing hub.