Viksit Bharat : NITI Aayog Roadmap

Governance · 10 June 2026

NITI Aayog: Meeting of the Governing Council

Tomorrow the 11th Governing Council meets. Seven years ago this week, I had written down what it is now setting out to do.

In one lineOn 11 June 2026, the NITI Aayog Governing Council will chart an Implementation Roadmap built on accountability and measurable, tracked outcomes — the very architecture I had proposed in my note “NITI V 2.0” dated 09 June 2019. This is not a claim of credit; it is a citizen’s quiet satisfaction that a good idea has found its hour.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will chair the 11th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog on 11 June 2026 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre, New Delhi, under the theme “Inclusive Human Development for Viksit Bharat @2047.” According to the Press Information Bureau, the Council will go beyond vision and deliberate on how that vision is to be delivered.

The PIB note records that the discussions will chart an Implementation Roadmap leveraging key enablers — Governance, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), Convergence, Partnerships and Data-driven Systems — alongside a structured mechanism to track short, medium and long-term outcomes, ensuring accountability and measurable impact.

My Take

That last phrase stopped me. An Implementation Roadmap. A mechanism to track outcomes. Accountability. Measurable impact. These are not new words to me — they were the spine of a note I had placed before NITI Aayog seven years ago this very week.

My suggestions regarding the revised role of NITI — written so that the agency would frame, circulate and measure, while someone else, independently, kept the score.— from “NITI V 2.0: A Concept Note,” 09 June 2019

I claim no credit. Ideas in the public square belong to no one. But I do allow myself the quiet vindication of seeing the direction arrive at the high table — and so I have set my 2019 note beside the 2026 Roadmap, line by line.

What I had written, in full (09 June 2019)

For the record, here are my suggestions regarding the revised role of NITI, exactly as set down seven years ago:

1. Continue with the framing of POLICIES for transforming India.
2. Circulate these among citizens and invite their comments / suggestions — perhaps through online surveys.
3. Policy-drafts should centre around each item of the Sankalp Patra.
4. Drafts must contain clearly defined, concrete STEPS / ACTIONS for achieving measurable end-targets.
5. For each step / action, an individual or a department must be made responsible and clearly listed.
6. For each such plan, a third-party independent agency must be identified for monitoring actual achievement.
7. Such agencies must be granted free access to all necessary government records for their assessment.
8. These action plans must be made integral parts of each Ministry’s OUTPUT BUDGET, as a beginning had already been made.
9. Agencies shall publish their findings (of TARGET vs ACTUAL ACHIEVEMENT) without awaiting government approval.
10. NITI Aayog must not, itself, get involved in the IMPLEMENTATION of any Ministry’s action plan.

A footnote on the name: NITI or NETI?

In an earlier note (25 March 2021), I had played with the institution’s own character. A small distinction, but it decides whether the body merely advises or actually transforms:

NITI

National Institute for Transforming India — the thinker, the policy mind.

NETI

National Enterprise for Transforming India — the doer, owning delivery.

My 2019 note answers the question: let NITI remain the Institute that frames and tracks, and let the line Ministries be the Enterprise that delivers. The thinker and the doer must not be the same hand.

My letter to the Prime Minister

In that spirit, here is the note I am addressing to Shri Narendra Modiji on the eve of the meeting:

To: Hon’ble Prime Minister of India  ·  Subject: A citizen’s 2019 note — three steps to make the Implementation Roadmap accountable

Respected Shri Narendra Modiji,

Ahead of the 11th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog (11 June 2026) and its theme of “Inclusive Human Development for Viksit Bharat @2047,” I write with a single, practical purpose.

The Press Information Bureau note states that the Council will chart an Implementation Roadmap with a structured mechanism to track short, medium and long-term outcomes, ensuring accountability and measurable impact. This is precisely the direction I had urged seven years ago this week, in “NITI V 2.0: A Concept Note” (09 June 2019).

I will not dwell on the gratification of seeing that idea arrive at the high table. Instead, permit me to convert it into three concrete steps the Roadmap could adopt at once:

1. ASSIGN. For every measurable target, name a single accountable owner — an individual or a department — recorded in that Ministry’s Output Budget. No target without an owner.
2. AUDIT independently. Appoint a third-party agency, with free access to government records, to publish TARGET-vs-ACTUAL findings on a fixed calendar — without first awaiting government approval. Accountability that the government grades itself on is not accountability.
3. SEPARATE roles. Let NITI Aayog frame, circulate (including via citizen consultation) and track — but never itself implement a Ministry’s action plan. The thinker and the doer must not be the same hand.

These three were the spine of my 2019 note, and they remain, I submit, the difference between a Roadmap that measures impact and one that merely declares it.

I offer this only as a brick toward the building you have asked every citizen to help raise.

With profound respect,
Hemen Parekh · Mumbai

Hemen Parekh
Mumbai · 10 June 2026
Read the originals: NITI V 2.0: A Concept Note (09 June 2019)  |  NITI or NETI? (25 March 2021)
www.hemenparekh.ai  |  myblogepage.blogspot.com