Shinde asks for customised central strategy for state development
Chief minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday batted for a customised strategy by NITI Aayog for Maharashtra and other states to push development projects in order to contribute to the country’s growth engine
Mumbai: Chief minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday batted for a customised strategy by NITI Aayog for Maharashtra and other states to push development projects in order to contribute to the country’s growth engine. He was speaking at the eighth governing council meeting of NITI Aayog in New Delhi, which was chaired by PM Narendra Modi. Modi said that the Aayog would study the states’ concerns, challenges and best practices and subsequently plan the way forward.
Shinde, in his speech mentioned various ongoing projects and initiatives in Maharashtra. Among these is a soon-to-be-launched State Innovations and Technological Fund of ₹200 crore for skill development for employment and a migration tracking system to ensure better services to migrant families.
Against the backdrop of the criticism he received for the state losing key industrial projects to Gujarat and other states, the Maharashtra CM said that the state had adopted a plug-and-play business model for manufacturing. “This allows investors and entrepreneurs to start their operations rapidly and with minimal capital investment,” he said. “It addresses the challenges faced by the manufacturing sector, and is being implemented in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Nagpur and Pune.”
Shinde said his government had also taken steps to reduce the regulatory compliance burden on businesses and citizens. “We have reduced 906 business-centric compliances and 81 citizen-centric compliances by repealing 64 acts,” he stated. “Our MAITRI portal makes 119 services accessible through a single-window clearance system.”
The CM said that Maharashtra had taken a slew of steps to achieve the target of a $1-trillion economy in the next five years. “This will help in achieving our national mission of $5 trillion,” he said. “To provide specialised inputs and guidance, we have established the Maharashtra Institution for Transformation, a think tank for strategic, functional and technical expert advice to the government. Similarly, the Economic Advisory Council, comprising CEOs and MDs of corporate entities, will advise us on economic growth and help us to achieve the target. We are achieving this by launching programmes for the development of districts and addressing rapidly growing urbanisation.”
Presenting various initiatives taken for farmers, women and youth, Shinde said that Maharashtra planned to recruit over 1.5 lakh youth in government jobs by December 2023. “Skill development training is being imparted to over 1 million candidates to enable them to apply for 0.2 million jobs,” he said. “We are setting up a state skills university and launching MTech programs in cyber security, cloud computing, and DevOps, and promoting start-ups and incubators. The state is a top performer in the States Start-up Ranking Framework, and we are launching a ₹200-crore Maharashtra Innovations and Technological Development Fund for the development of the MSME sector.”
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