Niti Aayog CEO tells ISB pass-outs to attain policy expertise
MOHALI : Batting for a greater role for the Niti Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India) and emphasising on the need to restructure the institutions, its chief executive officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant blamed past policies for the country’s backwardness, particularly in health care and infrastructure.
Kant, who was in the town to address the second convocation at the Indian School of Business, Mohali, told the gathering, “In the past, public policies were wrong as they led to the corruption in some institutions,” the Niti Aayog CEO added exhorting students to attain expertise in public policy.
‘WRONG POLICIES LEAD TO MALNOURISHED POPULATION’
“This is the most critical thing needs to be looked into, which has a huge amount of implication in Indian economy,” he continued, adding that wrong policies were leading, even to the creation of a malnourished population.
“There is a huge shortage of expertise and knowledge in health care and infrastructure. We have a certain obsolete institution with old rules, which needs to be redesigned,” he said.
“Corruption is there in some institutions. We have the Medical Council of India (MCI) that controls the supply of doctors. The institution needs a major restructuring,” the chief executive officer went to add. Significantly, the Centre is moving to scrap the medical council and replace with another institution.
Kant added that the MCI controlled the supply of doctors, yet there were 24.5% vacancies in rural areas of the country.
This statement comes in the back of the Niti Aayog, releasing a report, earlier this year, on the vacancies in Primary Health Centres (PHCS).
REPORT SUGGESTIONS
The report suggested that the vacancies of medical officers is the highest in Bihar (64%) with the lowest in Kerala (6%). Punjab had 8% vacancies.
In terms of super-specialists, Punjab had almost half the seats vacant at 48%.
› I exhort students to attain expertise in public policy. In the past, wrong public policies led to the corruption is some institutions. This has huge economic implications. AMITABH KANT, CEO, Niti Aayog