PM Modi exhorts NITI Aayog to tap global ideas, talents to 'transform India'

Prime minister Narendra Modi, who attended a meeting of the NITI Aayog on Thursday, has told the think tank to tap talents or even ideas from abroad and use them in the Indian context. “The prime minister told us that we should bring in more talents and more ideas, where ever we get them from. He was of the opinion that if we get 10 ideas, 9 may not suited for India. But we can tweak them to fit in the Indian context,” an official who attended the meeting told Firstpost. [caption id=“attachment_2921474” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prime minister Modi. Reuters[/caption] The high-level meeting was held as part of the plan to give the NITI Aayog, which is a replacement of the former Planning Commission, a greater role in governance. The meeting also took stock of the Aayog’s varied assignments and gave direction for the 15-year vision document the body is preparing for the development of the country. The 15-year vision document will be put in place in the beginning of 2017-18 and will replace the earlier five-year plans. The prime minister also exhorted that the time for incremental change is now over and that the current age is one that requires transformational change. Highlighting the importance of technology as an emerging driver of change over the last three decades, the Prime Minister said the government has the courage and the ability to bring about the transformational change. On agriculture, the prime minister said the focus cannot be on increasing productivity alone, but should be on the overall development of a vibrant rural economy. He emphasised the importance of the food processing sector, warehouse development, and technology inputs, in this sector. Meanwhile, according to a PTI report, Niti Aayog has made presentation to Modi in which vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya batted for inclusion of more experts in the government. “It is very important to induct more and more experts from different fields in the government. Increased complexity of the economy has meant that as a general rule, it is no longer possible for generalists to learn any subject within a matter of weeks or even months,” the report quoted from the presentation. Panagariya also suggested that only proper analysis and assessment of proposed policies by experts and specialists can help us anticipate “unintended consequences” of these policies. “This is why preparing the long-term vision and strategy documents and placing them in the public domain for extensive discussion is extremely important,” the Aayog has recommended. with PTI