-The Hindu NITI Aayog CEO says he did not say they were dragging down India’s growth Facing criticism over his comment that eastern States such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the BJP is in power, are keeping India backward, Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, on Tuesday issued a clarification on Twitter. “These States are backward on human development indicators because of legacy issues. This government’s...

-The Indian Express The ambitious scheme aims to cover over 10 crore “poor and vulnerable” families — an estimated 50 crore individual beneficiaries — with coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year. The Niti Aayog is working towards a launch on Independence Day of the government’s latest flagship National Health Protection Scheme, which was announced in the Union Budget Thursday. Top officials in the Aayog said that...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre's plan to install nearly a million solar-powered water pumps for irrigation in the next three years through a 30 per cent government subsidy appears fiscally unrealistic, energy researchers cautioned on Thursday and called for alternative financing strategies. The researchers with the New Delhi-based Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) have estimated that the 30 per cent subsidy on solar irrigation pumps would cost the government...

-Scroll.in The 10,000-megawatt project on the Siang river would ‘submerge the district headquarters of Upper Siang district’. On September 26, a delegation of the Arunachal Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Pema Khandu attended a presentation in Delhi by the Central government think tank Niti Aayog “on [a] proposed Multipurpose River Valley Project for Siang River”. The Siang is the Brahmaputra’s main tributary that connects to the Yarlung Tsangpo, as the Brahmaputra is...

-Scroll.in RTI documents show that Niti Aayog largely worked with World Bank and top private healthcare industry. The Niti Aayog’s blueprint to increase the role of private hospitals in treating non-communicable diseases in urban India by handing district hospitals over to the private sector on 30-year leases was built largely on a template provided by the World Bank. The template was fine-tuned in close coordination with top private healthcare industry representatives. State...