PM Modi Chairs the NITI Aayog's 7th Governing Council Meeting

NITI Aayog Governing Council Meeting: The 7th Governing Council meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was recently held at Rashtrapati Bhawan Cultural Centre in New Delhi.

Key Highlights:

It was the first in-person meeting of the council since July 2019.
The meeting was attended by 23 Chief Ministers, 3 Lieutenant Governors and 2 Administrators and Union Ministers. The meeting was moderated by Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh.
PM Modi addressed the meeting.
Addressing the meeting PM Modi heralded the collective efforts of all the States in the spirit of cooperative federalism as the force that helped India emerge from the Covid pandemic.
In his concluding remarks, he stressed the need of each state promoting its 3Ts—trade, tourism, and technology—through each Indian Mission overseas.
The agenda of the meeting included National Education Policy and crop diversification among others.

Agenda of the NITI Aayog meeting:

The agenda of the NITI Aayog meeting discussed by the Governing Council included
Issues of crop diversification, National Education Policy (NEP), Urban Governance, Achieving self-sufficiency in pulses, oilseeds & other agri-communities.
They discussed about how to reduce their reliance on foreign cooking oils from 50% to 25% in the future years.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar gave presentation on India’s G20 presidency from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023.
Rajnath Singh, the defence minister, moderated state interventions.
Concerns on Minimum support price for farmers, review of GST, shortage of IAS officers, and increased allocation of funds for states were raised by many States.
The NITI Aayog will reach out to states more frequently to discuss ways that it may work together more closely.

About NITI Aayog’s Governing Council:

The Governing Council is the apex body of NITI Aayog.
It comprises all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories and several Union ministers.

Members of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog include-