The seventh Niti Aayog’s Governing Council meeting is being held today at Rashtrapati Bhawan Cultural Centre in the national capital.

The meeting is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Notably, this is the first in-person meeting since July 2019.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma arrived at Assam Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday to attend the meeting.

The chief ministers from all states and Union Territories were invited to attend the meeting.

However, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar and Union Territories, legislators, Lt Governors of UTs, Ex-Officio Members, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Full-Time Members of NITI Aayog and Union Ministers as Special Invitees did not attend the meeting.

The agenda of the meeting are crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in oilseeds and pulses and agri-communities; implementation of the National Education Policy-school education; implementation of the National Education Policy-higher education; and urban governance.

The seventh Niti Aayog’s Governing Councils meeting will pave the way synergies towards a new era of collaboration and cooperation between the Centre and states, Union Territories in view of the drive towards building a steady, sustainable and inclusive India.

As India is going to celebrate its 75^th Independence Day, an official statement said, it is the need of the hour foe the states to be active, strong and self-reliant and move towards 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat' in a spirit of cooperative federalism.

“The meeting would also lay emphasis on the importance of the Presidency for India for the federal system and the role that states can play in highlighting their progress at the G-20 Platform,” the official statement added.

Telangana CM boycotted the meeting and said in a letter to PM Modi, “I do not find it useful to attend the 7th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog scheduled to be held on August 7 and I am staying away from it as a mark of strong protest against the present trend of the Central Govt to discriminate against the states and not treating them as equal partners in our collective efforts to make India a strong and developed country.”