PM Narendra Modi approves reconstitution of NITI Aayog

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved the re-constitution of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog.

While Rajiv Kumar - whose term ends this months - will continue to be the vice chairman, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah have been named as ex-officio members.

According to official sources, besides Amit Shah and Rajanth Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will also be ex-officio members.    

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Commerce and Industry and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot and Statistics Minister Rao Inderjit Singh will be special invitees to the panel.    

The panel's current members V K Saraswat, Ramesh Chand and V K Paul have been repeated. 

PM Modi will chair the fifth meeting of Niti Aayog's Governing Council on June 15 to discuss various issues concerning water management, agriculture and security.

The council, the apex body of Niti Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of union territories, several union ministers and senior government officials.

This will be the first governing council meeting under the new Modi government.

"All the chief ministers and heads of union territories have been invited by the Niti Aayog to participate in the meeting," sources said.

The second meeting of council on July 15, 2015, reviewed the progress made by the three sub-groups of chief ministers and the two task forces.

In the third meeting of the council on April 23, 2017, Modi had pitched for conducting simultaneous elections of the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies and shifting to a January-December fiscal year.

The fourth meeting of the council on June 17, 2018, deliberated upon measures taken to double farmers' income and the progress of government's flagship schemes.