New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attended the seventh Niti Aayog governing council meeting which took place at the Rashtrapati Bhavan's cultural centre in the national capital. The council held discussions over several issues such as crop diversification, urban development and implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP).
He made a strong case for modernisation of farm sector by using technology so that India can become self-sufficient and a global leader in the agricultural sector. The rapid urbanisation can become India’s strength instead of weakness by leveraging technology to ensure ease of living, transparent service delivery, and improvement in the quality of life, he said.
For the upcoming India's presidency of the G20 in 2023, PM Modi asked the states to set up dedicated teams for G-20 with a view to deriving maximum possible benefit from the initiative.
He also said that India should become self-sufficient in the production of edible oil.
Following the meeting, Suman Bery, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog during a press conference said: "PM Modi made important points on India post covid, year ahead and his expectation from meeting of NITI Aayog. He noted the way in which Centre and states during Covid made decisions in tandem with each other. He talked about India's aim for 2047."
"It was a fruitful interaction where the Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors presented the best practices from their states. There were presentations on NEP 2020, G20, and the importance of exports," said NITI Aayog CEO Parameswaran Iyer.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann who also attended the meeting said that he was "happy with the meeting" adding that "all issues were listened to. "All CMs kept their issues. PM sat with us from 10am to around 4:15pm, noted points. We gave suggestions... India will be chairing G20 from December1, I've put forth Amritsar's name before EAM Jaishankar as the location where all meetings be held. We'll showcase our culture," Mann said.
This is the first physical meeting of the Council after July 2019 as the meeting was not convened in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first meeting of the council took place on February 8
The Council, the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories and several Union ministers. The prime minister is the Chairman of NITI Aayog.
ALSO READ: NIA Arrests ISIS Member From Delhi For ‘Involvement In Collection Of Funds’ For Terror Outfit
Among the others who were in the meeting included Union Ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, S Jaishankar and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are the two big leaders who are not present in the meeting.
In a letter written to PM Modi, KCR stated that that the decision is to a mark his protest against what he terms as the 'Centre's alleged discrimination against states, including Telangana'.
Nitish Kumar chose to skip the meeting as he has just recovered from Covid-19.