NITI Aayog is very a good step, says Arun Maira

NEW DELHI: The previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had failed to break the impasse over key institutional and economic reforms, which may have halted India’s progress in the last few years, former Planning Commission member Arun Maira has said.

“The previous government had not figured out a way to get things moving forward,” Maira told HT. “The new government formed the NITI Aayog, whose charter actually is to figure out how to get things moving.”

Maira’s recent book An Upstart in Government, Journeys of Change and Learning gives an insider’s view of functioning of the erstwhile Planning Commission.

The former chairman of Boston Consulting Group, India, said the setting up of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog was “a very good step”.

“You recognise what the problem is. It is not a matter of smart economic policy or some reform proposition. Let’s get to the root cause of why are things stuck. If you can apply yourself to say how can you make people work more cooperatively with each other, then whatever the reforms are they will get done. There is no point in having very intellectually smart reforms, if they don’t see the light of the day,” Maira said.

“I was very pleased with the announcement of the NITI Aayog,” said Maira, who has advocated India’s need to “develop processes to convert contention into collaboration and confusion in coordination” and avoid past mistakes.