By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 19, 2021: PRIME Minister Mr Narendra Modi will chair the sixth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog on Saturday, February 20, via video conferencing.

"The agenda of the meeting includes deliberations on agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, human resource development, service delivery at grassroots level and health and nutrition," said the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday.

The Governing Council presents a platform to discuss inter-sectoral, inter-departmental and federal issues. It comprises the PM, chief ministers of States and Union Territories (UTs) with Legislatures, and lieutenant governors of the remaining UTs.

The sixth meeting will witness the entry of Ladakh for the first time, in addition to the participation of Jammu and Kashmir as a UT. This time, other UTs headed by administrators have also been invited to join.

The meeting will also be attended by the ex-officio members of the Council, Cabinet ministers, vice chairman, members and the CEO of NITI Aayog Mr Amitabh Kant, and other senior government officials.

The Governing Council last met in June, 2019 where they delved into the need to collectively combat poverty, unemployment, drought, pollution, pockets of under-development and all such factors that constrain India's progress.