• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the ‘NITI NCAER States Economic Forum’ portal in New Delhi on April 1.

• The portal has been developed by NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), which is a comprehensive repository of data on social, economic and fiscal parameters, research reports, papers, and expert commentary on State Finances for a period of about 30 years (1990-91 to 2022-23). 

• The portal will help states to make more meaningful interventions, raising revenues, managing debts and learning from peer experiences. 

• It will help in benchmarking the data of each state against that of other states and the national figures.

It offers direct access to the complete database categorised across five verticals:

i) Demography

ii) Economic Structure

iii) Fiscal

iv) Health

v) Education.

• It will facilitate easily accessible data and will also address the ongoing need for consolidated sectoral data in one place.

• By leveraging historical trends and real-time analytics, users will be able to track progress, identify emerging patterns, and formulate evidence-based policies for development.

National Council of Applied Economic Research

• National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) is an economic policy research institute, which was established in 1956.

• It was established as a public-private partnership, working with both the government and industry.

• NCAER’s first Governing Body included the entire Cabinet of ministers with an economic portfolio and some of the leading lights of the private sector. 

• The Ford Foundation provided substantial early financial support, combined with support from the Finance Ministry and Tata Sons.

• Over more than six decades, NCAER’s Governing Body has included prominent Indian economists and industrialists, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a member during 1976–82, and Ratan Tata as president during 1994–98. 

• NCAER’s current Governing Body is headed by Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), co-founder and former CEO of Infosys Ltd. 

• The current Director General of NCAER is Poonam Gupta. Gupta was the lead economist at the World Bank prior to her taking over the reins at NCAER.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)