DRAFT THREE YEAR ACTION AGENDA :Civil Services Mentor Magazine: JULY - 2017

::DRAFT THREE YEAR ACTION AGENDA::

In May 2016, the Prime Minister's Office advised the NITI Aayog, its premier, independent think tank, to prepare a Fifteen Year Vision, Seven Year Strategy and Three Year Action Agenda. The Fifteen Year Vision and
Seven Year Strategy document spanning 2017-18 to 2031-32 is in progress. The Action Agenda covers the period from 2017-18 to 2019-20, the last years of the Fourteenth Finance Commission. The 12th Five Year Plan was the last of the Five Year Plans. With an increasingly open and liberalized economy and given the new realities of the global economy, we needed to rethink the tools and
approaches to conceptualizing the development process. The Vision, Strategy and Action Agenda framework will allow us to better align the development strategy with the changed reality of India.

The Draft Agenda was circulated to NITI Aayog's Governing Council Members on April 23, 2016. It contains ambitious yet achievable proposals to achieve far-reaching changes in India's economy. Where relevant, we have included possible actions by the states to complement the Centre's efforts.

Selected Key Action Agenda Items

Three Year Revenue and Expenditure Framework:

A tentative medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) for the Centre is proposed. Based on forecasts of revenue, it proposes sector-wise expenditure allocation for three years.
Proposes reduction of the fiscal deficit to 3% of the GDP by 2018- 19, and the revenue deficit to 0.9% of the GDP by 2019-20.
The roadmap consisting of shifting additional revenues towards high priority sectors: health, education, agriculture, rural development, defence, railways, roads and other categories of capital expenditure.

Agriculture: Doubling Farmers' Incomes by 2022

Reform the Agricultural Produce Marketing to ensure that farmers receive remunerative prices.
Raise productivity through enhanced irrigation, faster seed replacement and precision agriculture.
Shift to high value commodities: horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries.

Industry and Services: Job Creation

Overarching Action Points
Create Coastal Employment Zones to boost exports and generate high-productivity jobs.
Enhance labour-market flexibility through reforming key laws
Address the high and rising share of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in India's banks through supporting the auction of larger assets to private asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), and strengthening the State Bank of India-led ARC.
Action points for specific sectors like Apparel, Leather and footwear, Electronics, Food processing, Finance etc.

Urban Development

Various steps are being listed by the NITI Aayog in their proposed three year vision document to make the situation of cities better in India. These steps include making flexible rules relating to land and amending the
Rent control and Tenancy act along with other measures. Steps given by the NITI Aayog are given below:

Need to bring down land prices to make housing affordable through increased supply of urban land for this various steps are given;

1. More flexible conversion rules from one use to another
2. Release of land held by sick units
3. Release of other urban land potentially available
4. More generous Floor Space Index.

Reform the Rent Control Act along the lines of Model Tenancy Act;
Promote dormitory housing
Address issues related to city transportation infrastructure and waste management.

Regional strategies

India is country of huge ariations in income and living standards, there are big differences in income level from one state to another. There are also big zonal variations in the income levels in India, western India is
relatively better developed as compare to eastern India. NITI Aayog has listed ways through which all the regions can be developed. NITI Aayog proposes actions targeted aimed at improving development outcomes in the (i) North Eastern Region, (ii) Coastal Areas & Islands, (iii) North Himalayan states and (iv) Desert and Drought prone states.

Transport and Digital Connectivity

Transportation in India is slow and tardy. This has huge impact on the country's net outcome. Huge part og India is still not properly connected to rest of India. This leads to economic as well as security challenges. India's
transportation is also improperly divided among the various sectors. Most of the load is on the road sector rather than on the trains or Aeroplanes. This has huge environmental as well as health impact also. Various steps
mentioned by NITI Aayog to smoothen India's transport sector are given below:

Strengthen infrastructure in roadways, railways, shipping & ports, inland waterways and civil aviation.
Ensure last-mile digital connectivity, particularly for egovernance and financial inclusion, through developing infrastructure, simplifying the payments structure and improving literacy.
Facilitate Public-Private Partnerships.by reorienting the role of the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL), introducing low cost debt instruments and operationalizing the National Investment Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).

Energy

NITI Aayog has also given steps for making available affordable and environment friendly energy to every household. Some of these important steps given by NITI Aayog are mentioned below:

Adopt consumer friendly measures such as provision of electricity to all households by 2022, LPG connection to all BPL households, elimination of black carbon by 2022, and extension of the city gas distribution programme to 100 smart cities.
Reduce the cross-subsidy in the power sector to ensure competitive supply of electricity to industry.\
Reform the coal sector by setting up a regulator, encouraging commercial mining and improving labour productivity.

Education and Skill Development

Shift the emphasis on the quality of school education paying particular attention to foundational learning
Move away from input-based to outcome-based assessments
Rank outcomes across jurisdictions
Use ICT judiciously to align teaching to the student's level and pace
Revisit the policy of automatic promotion up to eighth grade
Focus on creating and funding public universities under the World Class Universities program.

Health

Focus on public health through significantly increasing government expenditure on it, establishing a focal point and creating a dedicated cadre.
Generate and disseminate periodic, district-level data as per uniform protocols.
Formulate a model policy on human resources for health, implement a bridge course for nurses/AYUSH practitioners in primary care.
Reform IMC Act and the acts governing homeopathy and Indian systems of medicine
Launch the National Nutrition Mission; develop a comprehensive Nutrition Information System.