The Centre has restructured the NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog, with four full-time members and 15 Union ministers from the BJP and NDA allies like JDS, TDP and LJP (Ram Vilas).
The move comes ahead of the Union Budget 2024, which will be presented on July 23 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sitharaman on July 11 met economists Surjit Bhalla and Ashok Gulati and veteran banker K.V. Kamath to elicit their views and suggestions for the budget.
The four full-time members will include scientist V.K. Saraswat, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, paediatrician V.K. Paul and macro-economist Arvind Virmani. PM Modi will continue as the chairperson while economist Suman K. Bery will retain his position as the vice-chairperson of NITI Aayog.
Besides Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will be ex-officio members.
The special invitees include Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari; Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda; Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy (JDS); Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi; Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh; Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar; Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu (TDP), Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, Women and Child Development Minister Annpurna Devi, Food Processing Industries Minister Chirag Paswan (LJP-Ram Vilas) and Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister Rao Inderjit Singh.
