PM tells ministers to take info shared by NSCS, NSA seriously in policy making

PM Modi emphasised that when formulating any policy, it is important to consider it from India’s strategic point of view, and he claimed that in some cases, notes from the national security council were not given the proper weight.

During a five-hour long meeting of the council of ministers held on Friday that was also attended by all secretaries in the Union government, Modi cited the case of the dependence on imported Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) used for manufacturing drugs, which was highlighted by the NSCS several years back, the sources said.

In order to inform ministers about the secretariat, Deputy NSA Vikram Misri gave a presentation on NSCS after receiving a directive from Prime Minister Modi, sources claimed.

The sources added that Misri detailed the changes happening around the world, particularly in Europe, Russia, and the US, and their effects on India in the presentation.

According to sources, Misri’s presentation was not originally scheduled and was added on the intervention of the prime minister.

Before Misri, Finance Secretary TV Somanathan and Commerce Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam also gave their presentations.

Prime Minister stressed during the meeting that the process of creating policies is dynamic and must be adjusted to reflect the changing nature of the world.

Citing an example from his tenure as Gujarat chief minister, the prime minister said there were some rules related to a ministry that were named after some other state and this was changed only after he pointed it out to officials, the sources said.

He warned the group against developing and implementing policies in a complacent manner because this tendency exists. The prime minister was quoted by the sources as saying that policies should be adjusted to reflect the times.

(With inputs from PTI)