NEW DELHI: The collective efforts of all the states and the spirit of cooperative federalism got us through the COVID-19 pandemic, said Prime minister Narendra Modi at the 7th NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting in Delhi on Sunday.
โEvery State played a crucial role according to its strength and contributed to Indiaโs fight against COVID. This led to India emerging as an example for the developing nations to look up to as a global leader,โ PM Modi said.
The Prime Minister said that a lot of effort had gone into organising this meeting as โmonths of rigorous brainstorming and consultations between the Centre and Statesโ had taken place to identify โnational prioritiesโ.
โFor the first time in Indiaโs 75 years of independence, all of Indiaโs Chief Secretaries met together in one place and deliberated on issues of national importance for three days. This collective process led to the development of the agenda for this meeting,โ PM Modi said
This was the first physical meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog since the onset of pandemic COVID-19 in March 2020. The meeting was attended by 23 Chief Ministers, three Lieutenant Governors, two Administrators and Union Ministers. The Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh moderated the meeting.
The agenda of the meeting was โcrop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in pulses, oilseeds and other agri commodities, โimplementation of National Education Policy (NEP) in school educationโ, โimplementation of National Education Policy in higher educationโ, and โurban governanceโ.
Highlighting the importance of GST, PM Modi said, โIncreasing GST collection requires collective action by the Centre and States. It is crucial for strengthening our economic position and becoming a USD 5 trillion economy.โ
Talking about Indiaโs G20 presidency in 2023, the prime minister called it a โunique opportunity to show the world that India is not just Delhi โ it is every State and Union Territory of the countryโ.
