NITI Aayog, You and Me….
The government of India
constituted the NITI Aayog. NITI Aayog replaces the 65 year old planning
commission. NITI is a Sanskrit word that
loosely translates as ‘policy’. The government has aptly given NITI an
appropriate long form. National Institution for Transforming India. I am not sure
if it’s the other way round. Long form condensed into an acronym. Anyways, the point is now we have the NITI Aayog.
As the Chairman of the Aayog, our
Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi kick starts the first meeting of NITI Aayog on
6th February 2015.
So what should be different with
the NITI Aayog compared to the planning commission that we had for good 65
years?
Here are the three things that
may not only differentiate but have a positive influence on the people of our
country.
1.
Identifying
the real definition of GDP :
GDP or Gross
Domestic Product is a measure of gross economic activity. This really does not
differentiate between a good activity and a bad activity. The GDP looks at the
value, not worth. As the famous economist Tim Harford puts it, ‘a Brazilian wax
may have the same value as the cost of a week’s food for a poor family’.
a.
What money can’t buy :
Philosopher
Michael Sandel explains in his book What
money cannot buy that many things that produce goodness in people’s lives
such as dignity, trust in one’s neighbors and a sense of fairness are not
measurable in money terms. Therefore they are excluded from GDP calculations.
Measuring
quantitative things itself is difficult at a macro level. So if we add
qualitative aspects like dignity, trust etc, it will be even more difficult to
have a score or a number that is comparable.
b.
The economics of innocent fraud :
John Kenneth
Galbraith writes in The economics of
innocent fraud, ‘Good performance is measured by the production of material
objects and services. Not education or literature or the arts but the
production of automobiles, including SUVs…The best of human past is the
artistic, literary, religious and scientific accomplishments that emerged from
the societies where they were the measure of success.’
Integrating quantitative and
qualitative aspects to measure the real progress should be an important task on
NITI Aayog’s agenda.
2.
Education
:
The first
education policy in India came in 1968. This document established 10+2+3
education model. We got the second policy in 1986 that focused on access and
equity. For the last 29 years now there is no new education policy in our
country whereas there has been a fundamental shift of what is required in terms
of knowledge and skills.
The government
has recently outlined a vision for education policy. The broad contours of this policy under 33
themes are uploaded on www.mygov.in .
Some of the
framework points are:
a.
Internationalisation of higher education
b.
Public-Private partnership in higher education
c.
Improving quality of education
d.
Outcome based teaching-learning model in
elementary schools
NITI Aayog needs to play an
important role in ensuring that the framework is robust enough to take care of
current and future knowledge and skill requirements.
3.
Financial
Inclusion :
We hear stories
of money being borrowed at 5% per month by a sahukaar (money lender). There are
many movies depicting this pain where the borrower spends (and sometimes ends)
his life servicing the debt. Jan Dhan
Yojana is a big and important step that can curtail this to a large extent. The
Aayog needs to chart the future course so that it creates a win-win for the
account holder as well as the banks or financial institutions.
In a nutshell,
we need a balanced score card for measuring the progress of our nation and our
countrymen.
NITI Aayog will
do a great job if it creates one. In the real sense then it will be an
institution for transforming India.
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