NITI AYOG: All you need to know

What is NITI Aayog?

First of all the NITI stands for National Institution for Transforming India. It is a non- constitutional body established on January 1, 2015 replacing age-old, planning commission of India. 

NITI Aayog is a think tank (or an advice and planning committee) of Government of India formed mainly to provide both directional and policy inputs. This has been framed by scraping out the ‘Planning commission’, which used to make 5 years plans and distribution of finance for various state and central plans. Being an advisory committee, while designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States. The first meeting of  NITI Aayog was held on February 8, 2015.

Most of us will have a common question ie. Is NITI Aayog a constitutional body?, as mentioned earlier NITI Aayog is neither a constitutional body nor a statutory body, It is Non- constitutional body/non- statutory with structure as explained below.

Quick facts, before moving further: All government bodies are divided into three types. those are, 1.Constitutional body: Any government body or organization which has been created after its mention in constitution and it is most important body among all. example: election commission of India 2.Statutory body: any body which has been formed after an act/law has been passed by the parliament/assembly. example: SEBI(Securities and Exchange Board of India) 3.Non-constitutional: any and non- statuary body which has been formed by the government with an agenda to fulfill and for ease of governing, generally these bodies will be converted into statutory. example: NITI Aayog

Body and Members of NITI Aayog:

Unlike Planning commission NITI Aayog is a body with bottom up approach in advisory method. Whre the planning ideas and suggestions comes from lower most elements of the body. The Headquarter of Aayog is at Delhi with Prime minister being chairperson of the body. The prime minister himself choses other parts of this organization. Those parts include a vice chairman, a chief executive officer, four ex-official members and two part-time members.

Chief ministers of all states/Delhi/Puduchery and Lt. governors of union territories are  permanent members of the commission and this is also governing and regional council of the body.  Temporary members are generally chosen from various leading universities and research institutes of the country. 

For easy understanding the structure is schematically explained below,

NITI Aayog structure

Current body constitutes of,

POST	PERSON
Chairperson	Shri Narendra Modi, Hon'ble Prime Minister
Vice Chairperson	Dr. Rajiv Kumar
CEO	Shri Amitabh Kant
Full-Time Members	(i) Shri V.K. Saraswat (ii) Prof. Ramesh Chand (iii) Dr. V. K. Paul
Ex-officio Members	(i) Shri Raj Nath Singh, Minister of Defence (ii) Shri Amit Shah, Minister of Home Affairs (iii) Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs (iv) Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare;Minister of Rural Development; Minister of Panchayati Raj.
Special Invitees	(i) Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways; Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ii) ShriThaawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment. (iii) Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways; and Minister of Commerce and Industry (iv) Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State(Independent Charge) of Ministry of Planning.
Permanent members	Chief ministers of all states/Delhi/Puduchery and Lt. governors of union territories.

Besides all other structures, There are mainly two types of Hubs in NITI Aayog, those are,

1) Team India Hub: which mainly engages states with center.

2) Knowledge and Innovation Hub: this forms the main think tank of the commission.

The detailed functions of NITI Ayog are given below

Functions of NITI Aayog:

The NITI Aayog is mainly an advisory committee which does not hold any financial decision making /distribution power. As mentioned earlier, unlike Planning commission of India, the NITI Aayog follows bottom up approach for its discussions hence it emphasizes state's involvement in it. "Collaboration of center with states in planning" would be right words to use here.  

The following are main functions of it.

1. Prioritizing shared sectors and strategies with active participation of states. 

2. To foster cooperative federalism through structured support initiatives and mechanisms with the States on a continuous basis, recognizing that strong States make a strong nation.

3. Planning to development of village and lower level to empower it for its active participation in future decisions.

4. To ensure, on areas that are specifically referred to it, that the interests of national security are incorporated in economic strategy and policy.

5. To pay special attention to the sections of our society that may be at risk of not benefiting adequately from economic progress.

6. To make long term plans and involving feedback collection of it, mainly to innovate it, if there is scope to do so.

7.  To provide advice and encourage partnerships between key stakeholders and national and international like-minded Think tanks, as well as educational and policy research institutions.

8. To create a knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative community of national and international experts, practitioners and other partners.

9. It is also frames a platform to resolve inter-sectoral and inter departmental issues to accelerate development and growth of the nation.

10.  To maintain a 'state-of-the-art' Resource Center, be a repository of research on good governance and best practices in sustainable and equitable development as well as help their dissemination to stake-holders.

11. To actively monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and initiatives, including the identification of the needed resources so as to strengthen the probability of success and scope of delivery.

12.Mainly it has vision to support and plan the technology upgrading plans of the country.

13. To undertake other activities as may be necessary in order to further the execution of the national development agenda, and the objectives mentioned above.

How NITI Aayog is different from planning commission?

Most of you might have got a question like, if the NITI Aayog replaced the Planning commission what are the major difference between them?

Planning Commission follows top down model while NITI Aayog follows bottom up approach.

Unlike Planning Commission it is only a advisory committee and it does not make any financial division and most importantly five years plan scheme being cut down from PC (last five years plan was from 2012-17)

Quick facts, before moving further: Planning Commission: Planning commision famously known as 'Yojana Aayog' was a commision mainly formed, concentrating on developement of the country in various sectors. It was established on 15th March 1950 by Prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. This commission is being mainly known for one of its functioning  that is 'Five year Plan'. The '12th five years plan(2012 - 2017)' was last of it.  It was scrapped in 2014 by  NDA government to form NITI Aayog. It was considerably quite successful body with emphasis on social reforms.                                                                                                     To read more about it click HERE

If you have any query/ feedback/ suggestions, please feel free to comment down below.

WHAT IS EMERGENCY(National Emergency)? its types and effects: All you need to know

Emergency is a state, which is proclaimed in the country when it will become difficult for national or state administration/government to handle any particular situation. so far it has been proclaimed thrice in the country. The provisions and consequences of emergency are mentioned in article 352 to 360 of Indian constitution. These provisions empowers government to handle any crucial situations effectively. During the emergency period, the administration will be converted into unitary system from federal structure of it without any formal amendment to constitution.

This kind of transformation of the political system from federal during normal times to unitary during Emergency is a unique feature of the Indian Constitution. In this context, Dr B R Ambedkar observed in that:

"All federal systems including American are placed in a tight mold of federalism. No matter what the circumstances, it cannot change its form and shape. It can never be unitary. On the other hand, the Constitution of India can be both unitary as well as federal according to the requirements of time and circumstances without any formal amendments. In normal times, it is framed to work as a federal system. But in times of Emergency, it is so designed as to make it work as though it was a unitary system."

The emergencies are announced  mainly based on three criteria. In general words these are called three types of emergency. Those are as enlisted below,

Sl. No.	Emergency	Name	Article
1	Emergency due to external war or armed rebellion	National emergency	352
2	Emergency due to failure of constitutional conduct in states	state emergency, presidents rule	356
3	The emergency called due to financial instability	financial emergency	360

info-graphics of emergency

Let’s discuss all of them in detail one after other by answering some commonly asked questions,

National emergency:

  The national emergency can be declared in whole or any part of country on grounds of internal disturbance or armed rebellion and during war or so-called external aggression as mentioned in article 352.

The national emergency can be mainly divided into two types, those are,

1) Internal emergency: caused by aggression of internal opposing or radical forces

2) External emergency: caused by external aggression or war.

  President with written recommendation from cabinet (not prime minister alone) announces this type of emergency.
After proclamation, it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament within a month of proclamation.
 Once the its is approved, the emergency will withstand for six months and can be extended with further approval.
 The proclamation can revoked by president at any time without any recommendation or approval.
As an effect of this many changes will be done in governance as mentioned in article 352, those are mainly,

     1.     Suspension of fundamental rights: the fundamental rights and freedoms are suspended  except those mentioned in article 20 and 21.

      Article number 20 and 21 comes under fundamental rights of Indian constitution, 

Quick facts, before moving further

ARTICLE 20:  Protection in respect of conviction for offenses: (1) No person shall be convicted of any offense except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the Act charged as an offense, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offense. (2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offense more than once. (3) No person accused of any offense shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. ARTICLE 21: Protection of life and personal liberty: No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

2. Empowering of president to rule: as mentioned above during emergencies the federal of governing will be converted into unitary system. By this the state’s executive, financial and legislative decisions are taken by President.

and

3. The life of LokaSabha can be extended beyond it normal term (ie. 5years): By considering the inability to conduct elections and need for the moment the term of Lokasabha can be extended if needed.

For example, the term of the Fifth Lok Sabha (1971–1977) was extended two times by one year at a time.

  Declarations Made So Far: So far, the national emergency has been declared thrice. Those are as follows,

Sl.No.	year	type	cause
1	1962-68	external aggression/war	Indo-sino border conflict at northeast India
2	1971	external aggression/war	India -Pakistan (Bangladesh liberation war) war was called
3	1975-77	internal disturbance	there was a huge internal disturbance caused after Indira Gandhi’s suit on political malpractice.

1975’s national emergency is called as mumps or black days of Indian politics, which lead to so many injustice. this emergency was solely decided by Ms. Gandhi without consulting her cabinet.
To read more about it click HERE

Precedent’s rule/state emergency:

The characteristics of the state emergency/president’s rule are quite similar to national emergency but it is proclaimed in state level. The president’s rule is implacable in any state when there is failure in constitutional machinery in the state (as mentioned in article 356). The failures are generally failure to form majority during government formation or failure to maintain state’s legislature/execution/financial items per the constitutional provisions by the state government. Hence, it is also called as “constitutional emergency”

Similar to national emergency after the president’s rule proclamation it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament but unlike national emergency the approval has to be done within two months. The revocation can be done at any time by president without any formal approval. Once the president’s rule is imposed it withstands for 6 months. It can be extended with the approval of both the houses of parliament and satisfying following conditions

1) The Nation emergency is in operation.

And

2) The election commission must certify the inability of it to conduct MLA elections (assembly elections) in that particular state.

Consequently, the governance of state with respect to state’s legislature/execution/financial are done with the help of GOVERNER.

To see the list of instances at which the presidents’ rule has been imposed CLICK HERE. 

Financial Emergency:

The article 360 gives power to president in proclaiming the financial emergency. The financial emergency is imposed when there in economic instability in the nation or in any part of it. The instability could be caused mostly by crisis caused by credit of the country or sudden boom or depression in the economical curves.

Like the other emergencies the financial emergency also needs approval from both the houses of the parliament and the period given for approval is 2 months. Once it is approved by both the houses Financial Emergency can continue indefinitely until it is revoked.

This implies two things:

1. there is no maximum period prescribed for its operation; and

2. repeated parliamentary approval is not required for its continuation.

and moreover it only needs simple majority(ie. vote more than 50%).

like other emergencies financial emergency also does not require any approval while revoking it.

Effects of Financial Emergency;
There are so many minor and major effects on financial emergency. considerable among are the financial authority of cent re extends to all the states, allowing it to decide state's financial matters. Any decision such as reduction of salaries of persons serving to state or central govt. can be taken.
and many other.

Till now no Financial Emergency has been declared so far, though there was a

financial crisis in 1991.

Quick Fact: What if Lokasabha gets dissolved without giving approval? Even though its a very rare possibility, there is a provision mentioned in the constitution for this. If the Lokasabha will get dissolved without giving its approval for the proclaimed emergency, (it may be any of the above mentioned types) the emergency will hold valid for 30 days from its date of announcement.

If you have any query/suggestion/feedback please comment down below.