Who is the Current CEO Of NITI Aayog: NITI Aayog Formation, Structure, Initiatives & Facts for UPSC

NITI Aayog; the National Institution For Transforming India got its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as Parameswaran Iyer. The Appointment Committee of Cabinet has appointed him as CEO of NITI Aayog for a tenure of two years.

He will be joining the office from July after the tenure of current CEO Amitabh Kant will come to an end by the end of June, 2022 after having served for a period of Six years. Let's know about Parameswaran Iyer and all about NITI Aayog in detail.

NITI Aayog CEO: Parameswaran Iyer

The newly appointed CEO of NITI Aayog, Mr Parameswaran Iyer is 1981 batch IAS Officer. After the Voluntary retirement from IAS in 2009 he went to work with the World Bank.

In India he has been one of the Cardinals to run Swachh Bharat Flagship mission and during pandemic his role was crucial in heading and empowering Covid help groups for logistics Management. Iyer has been involved in activities like sanitation, availability of pure drinking water etc and has served as former Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary from which he resigned in July last year. Now let's know about the formation, functioning and significance of NITI Aayog.

Formation Of NITI Aayog

NITI which is an abbreviation of National Institution for Transforming India works as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India. The 65 years old planning commission was renamed as NITI Aayog in 2015 by the NDA Government.

On January 1st 2015 NITI Aayog was formed and the word NITI which is taken from Sanskrit stands for behaviour, guidance, morality etc. It is constituted by the government to bolster the economic growth to form a strong and dynamic country.

NITI Aayog works as a nodal agency which is responsible for the country's growth and economic development by involving state governments in Important policy making decisions through bottom-up approach. NITI Aayog has mainly two hubs.

Team India Hub: This focuses on the participation of Indian States with the Central Government in the policy making process.
The Knowledge And Innovation Hub: It aims at building the research infrastructure and think-tank capacities.

Structure Of NITI Aayog

Here is the comprehensive list of structure of NITI Aayog or administrative authority of NITI Aayog.

NITI Aayog Chairperson: The Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi.
Vice-Chairperson: Suman Bery. The Vice-Chairperson is appointed by the Prime-Minister.
Chief Executive Officer: Parameswaran Iyer. Appointed by Prime-minister for a fixed tenure, in rank of Secretary to Government of India. Current CEO is Amitabh Kant who will be succeeded by Parameswaran Iyer.
Governing Council: It comprises Chief Ministers of all states and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.
Regional Council: The council is chaired by the Prime Minister which comprises Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors to address specific regional issues.
Ad-hoc Membership: 2 members in ex-officio capacity from leading Research institutions on rotational basis.
Ex-Officio membership: Maximum four from the Union council of ministers to be nominated by the Prime minister. Currently they are Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitaraman and Narendra Singh Tomar.
Special Invitees: Experts, Specialists with domain knowledge nominated by the Prime-minister. Currently they are Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Virendra Kumar, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Rao Inderjit Singh.

Plans And Initiatives Of NITI Aayog

NITI Aayog has 3 plans of actions as follows.

• Fifteen year vision: It is under preparation.
• Seven year vision: It is under preparation.
• Three year vision is from 2017 to 2020.

NITI Aayog has been continuously behind various positive changes in terms of Initiatives. As a policy making body with amalgamation of innovative ideas it has taken various steps to transform the future of modern India. Some of its Initiatives are:

• Indices Measuring States' Performance in Health, Education and Water Management
• AMRUT, Digital India, Atal Innovation Mission, Medical Education Reform
• Task Forces on Agriculture and up of Poverty, Agriculture reforms (Model Land Leasing Law, Reforms of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Index for ranking states),
• Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Skill Development, and
• Recently started Transforming India Lecture Series.

Seven Pillars On Which NITI Aayog Work

NITI Aayog works on principles of upliftment of the poor, Inclusion to include all sections under one head and people participation. The 7 Pillars of effective Governance on which the working of NITI is based are as follows.

• Pro-people: it fulfils the aspirations of society as well as individuals
• Pro-activity: in anticipation of and response to citizen needs.
• Participation: involvement of the citizenry
• Empowering: Empowering, especially women in all aspects.
• Inclusion of all: inclusion of all people irrespective of caste, creed, and gender.
• Equality: Providing equal opportunity to all especially for youth.
• Transparency: Making the government visible and responsive.

Quick Facts On NITI Aayog For UPSC

Here we are listing some facts which are frequently asked in the examination.

• NITI Aayog was established on January 1, 2015 in place of the Planning Commission.
• The Prime Minister of India is the Chairman/Chairperson of NITI Aayog.
• NITI Aayog focuses on the Bottom-up approach of planning.
• Its Secretaries to be known as CEOs are appointed by the Prime Minister.
• Unlike the Planning Commission, it has no rights of allocation of funds. The power of funds allocation is vested in the finance minister.
• Parmeswaran Iyer (Ret IAS Officer) is the new CEO of NITI Aayog.
• Full Form of NITI Aayog is National Institution For Transforming India.
• It is headquartered in New Delhi.
• Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarya is known as the father of Indian Economic Planning.