NITI Aayog member M Srinivas on Friday said that while Jammu-Kashmir is doing well in all sectors, there is always scope for improvement.
Srinivas was talking to reporters after a NITI Aayog delegation visited CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM) here.
He said that during its interactions with J-K LG Manoj Sinha, CM Omar Abdullah and Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, the delegation assessed the progress in various departments.
“I am extremely happy that Kashmir is doing very well and definitely all sectors are doing well. But there is enough scope and potential for us to do because we need to learn from the best practices of the world and the best practices of India as well. So, there is always scope for people to improve upon,” the NITI Aayog member said.
“It is a duty of the NITI Aayog that we look into whether there are any issues with the particular department or the particular ministry or something like that. Are there any issues with them which are getting hurdles from the Delhi side? So, basically, to break those silos and then facilitate them, bring them on board and then that’s the thing,” he said.
Srinivas said that the NITI Aayog works with an ethos of competitive federalism and cooperative federalism.
“That means, we help the people bring them on board, help to get the help from somewhere else. And the competitive spirit is that we always tell the people that this part of the country is doing well, this is a best practice. And then the best practices which are being done here, we will carry forward to other states and say that if Kashmir is able to do, why don’t you do it. So, basically, we are here to bridge that gap between the people, break the silos, bring them on one platform and facilitate and help them,” he added.
The NITI Aayog member said the major takeaway of the visit is that there is a need to connect the institutions in J-K with the best institutions of the country “because some of the basic research which is happening, ultimately, they have to take it to commercialisation. It has to reach the mankind”.