Niti Aayog 2.0 in the time of global churn

EAR TO THE GROUND

- Yamini Aiyar

Intellectual traditions of the neo-liberal era—open markets, deregulation, globalization, smaller state—that dominated policymaking in India since the 1991 moment, are losing legitimacy both in India and across the globe. With the rise of populism, the western turn to de-globalization, rapid technological advancement, and the accelerating climate crisis, the globe has entered a new, turbulent era. Closer to home, the grim realities of our economic trajectory—a stalled structural transformation, persistent unemployment, and growing inequality—are adding to the turbulence. With accepted pathways in contention, the scale of the predicament confronting policymaking is unprecedented. Now more than ever, the craft of policymaking needs to be embedded in ideas and evidence, a transparent and democratic dialogue across stakeholders, particularly at the State level, and a culture that welcomes active public contestation and an openness to critique.

This is the backdrop against which the performance of the government's think tank, the Niti Aayog, which turned 10 this January, ought to be debated. The January 2015 Cabinet resolution mandating its formation was unusually prescient. It argued that the government needed “a directional and policy dynamo” that would provide a “shared vision of national development…and respond to the changing and integrated world”. Yet, Niti Aayog’s performance in these 10 years has been underwhelming, stymied by a combination of contextual and structural factors.