‘saTh’ WiLL TransFOrM educaTiOn, heaLTh secTOrs

NEW DELHI: The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog,) has launched “SATH” (Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital) to further Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of cooperative federalism and promote better health and education systems in the country. The initiative has been launched in response to state governments’ plea for technical assistance. “As part of the initiative, NITI Aayog will work with state governments to prepare a blueprint which can help transform the education and health sectors in states,” Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, told The Sunday Guardian. “Initially, three states will be chosen after a well laid out process in which the state governments have to make presentation of their intents and objectives and later, other states from across the country will be added into the system,” Kant added. The announcement of the launch of the SATH programme was made on 10 June this year. On the occasion of the launch, NITI Aayog had said that 16 states had taken part in the exercise out of which five states made it to the final round. Subsequently, three states will be selected on the basis of further evaluations and objective assessment of criteria affecting the potential for impact and likelihood of success. The parameters for the selection of states by the NITI Aayog include Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), incidence of malaria and others determining factors like density of doctors and nurses and compliance with Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) norms. NITI Aayog has adopted a three-stage process: expression of interest, presentations by the states and assessment of commitment to health sector reforms. “The programme will be implemented by NITI Aayog along with McKinsey and Company and IPE Global consortium, who were selected through a competitive competitive bidding process,” a source in the NITI Aayog said.— Kundan Jha