Niti Ayog to be Centre’s think tank

New Delhi: The the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog replacing the Planning Commission will be headed by a regular vice-chairperson with the Prime Minister being the ex-officio chairperson.

There would also be a set of full-time members and also two part-time members and all of them are likely to be drawn from fields of different expertise. The Planning Commission instead had a deputy chairperson.

In place of a member secretary in its previous avatar, the new body will have a chief executive officer and, in addition, four Union ministers would serve as ex-officio members.

The Aayog will have a governing council, which will comprise of the chief ministers of all states and lieutenant-governors from UTs and will work towards fostering a “cooperative federalism” to provide a “national agenda” to the Centre and states.

The Aayog will serve as a “think-tank” of the government as “a directional and policy dynamo” and would provide the Centre and in states with strategic and technical advice on policy matters.