Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to chair the ninth governing council meeting of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) today, July 27. The council, the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all state chief ministers, lieutenant governors of union territories, and several union ministers, with Modi serving as the chairman.
Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states, including Maharashtra’s Eknath Shinde, Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath, and Gujarat’s Bhupendra Patel, are expected to attend. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will also participate, planning to raise concerns about the Centre’s “step-motherly attitude” towards opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget 2024-25. However, several opposition chief ministers, including Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin, Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah, Telangana’s Revanth Reddy, Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann, and Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, have decided to boycott the meeting.
The agenda includes discussing the ‘Approach Paper’ for the vision document on Viksit Bharat @2047 and the recommendations of the third National Conference of chief secretaries. Key themes will cover drinking water access, electricity quality, healthcare affordability, schooling standards, and land digitization. The meeting will also address cybersecurity, the aspirational districts programme, and the role of states in AI governance, aiming to enhance collaborative governance and improve delivery mechanisms for both rural and urban populations.