New Delhi: Government think-tank Niti Aayog may have been holding high profile consultations with states on major issues like lending institutional support to infrastructure projects and helping them give shape to social sector schemes, however, its capability of handling such wide ranging responsibilities does not seem to reflect in the meagre budget of just over Rs 250 crore provided to it for the new financial year 2017-18.
Saddled with such a “shoestring” budget, top sources informed that the Niti Aayog may streamline its existing set-up so that it can effectively utilise its expertise and manpower according to the budgetary allocation given to it for fulfilling the challenging tasks mandated by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The total allocation for the ministry of planning (the nodal ministry for Niti Aayog) for the current fiscal is Rs 252 crore and according to highly placed sources, serious doubts are emerging on how the think tank will tackle huge responsibilities like the Centre’s digitalisation initiative and setting up of innovation hubs with such a small amount of money.
Sources privy to the development said that the ministry of planning is exploring the possibilities of preparing an appraisal report of the outcomes which it has achieved in the last two years of its existence, and the expenses which it has incurred related to various initiatives undertaken during this period.
The planning ministry is also likely to prepare a detailed report on the kind of data mining and analysis it has done of various government programmes in the past two years, ministry sources informed further.
It is being felt within Niti Aayog that by streamlining its present set-up, it would be able to play its role in an effective manner by focusing only on selective priority areas like the social sector.
Streamlining itself is all the more imperative for Niti Aayog, as its earlier allocative role (during the Planning Commission era) is no more there.
In such a scenario, there are possibilities that it may also cut down on a wide ambit of focus areas and look at sectors which are directly related to the grassroots level.
