Water and Land Resources

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Overview

The broader vision of the Vertical is to ensure equitable access to water and land resources while focusing on the sustainable development of the nation. It formulates policy directions and advisories to harness the potential of advanced and ready-to-use technologies and promotes research and development to achieve excellence in water and land resources management.   The Vertical aims to enhance the standard of living of all citizens by enabling hassle-free access to these two crucial resources, and to equip all stakeholder organisations in attaining higher standards of service delivery without hampering sustainable development. Further, the Vertical has the following goals:  

• Provide adequate and safe drinking water (piped) and water for sanitation for citizens and livestock.
• Provide optimum irrigation (har khet ko pani) with improved on-farm water-use efficiency (‘more crop per drop’).
• Provide water to industries, encourage them to utilise recycled/treated water and ensure zero discharge of untreated effluents from industrial units.
• Ensure long-term sustainability of finite groundwater resources.
• Operation and maintenance of water infrastructure with the active participation of farmers and/or consumers.
• Promote R&D to facilitate the adoption of the latest technologies
• Provide water to water-scarce agrarian districts that are rainfed and experience extreme weather shocks, almost twice as high as in irrigated areas.
• Bridge the gap between the irrigation potential created and the irrigation potential utilised of such projects.
• Promote the revitalisation of rivers for the integrated development of river basins and the protection of vanishing rivers.
• Consolidate fragmented plots of farmers to enhance efficiency and equity.
• Create a digitised and integrated land records system that is easily accessible to all states.
• Increase efficiency in the management of land.
• Convert waste and fallow land to productive uses

Core Functions

Policy Analysis and Formulation

The Vertical regularly reviews and analyses the strategies and policies of the two sectors and provides directional inputs. It also takes the lead in formulating new policies.  

Impact Analysis of Reforms

Assessment being the primary requirement for improvement of any action, the Vertical considers impact analysis of reforms as paramount in its functioning. A good number of in-house studies and detailed analyses, with the help of evaluation agencies, are done in the sectors of irrigation, drinking water, sanitation, agriculture, and land resources.  

Identifying Areas Requiring Special Attention

The Vertical proactively identifies geographical locations and sub-sectors that require special attention. This step has led to the formulation of tailor-made schemes and modification of many ongoing ones.  

Resource Management Initiatives

It provides continuous support to all Ministries, Departments, organisations, and institutions in identifying and adopting best practices. Further, steps are taken to augment the supply and availability of resources with special attention in curbing factors affecting their quality.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Water

AI and machine learning (ML) are being widely adopted to improve service delivery in major sectors to remove hassles and raise comfort levels. The Hon’ble Prime Minister during his address on World Water Day on 22 March said, ‘Today when we are trying for rapid development, it is not possible without water security, without effective water management. The vision of India’s development, the vision of India’s self-reliance, is dependent on our water sources, is dependent on our water connectivity.’ The Vertical is committed to harnessing the potentials of AI and ML to augment resource management initiatives in the two sectors.  

Appraisal and Evaluation 

• Examination of various project proposals for Standing Finance Committee/Expenditure Finance Committee’s consideration.
• Examination of DPRs related to drinking water schemes, irrigation, sanitation, land management and furnishing comments on technical and financial feasibility.
• Examination of PIB proposal of projects in the sector and furnishing comments on technical and financial feasibility.
• Examination of Cabinet Notes on the sector for Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approval.
• Examination of proposals for external assistance funding in water and land resources sector

Line Ministries/States

 

• Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti
• Ministry of Rural Development
• Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
• Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
• Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change
• All State Governments

Reports

Title	Download
SOP for Restoration and Rejuvenation of Ponds
Model Conclusive Land Titling Act & Rules
Resource Book on Springshed Management in the Indian Himalayan Region
Compendium Of Best Practices In Water Management - 2.0
Composite Water Management Index
Composite Water Management Index (CWMI)

Projects

The Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) is the social index NITI Aayog in Water sector to rank the States and Union Territories (UTs) in terms of their water management efficacy. States are ranked under two categories, namely, Non-Himalayan, and Himalayan & North-Eastern, to account for the geographic peculiarities and ensure a level playing field. UTs are ranked separately. The ranking is done based on 31 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) under 9 themes covering Source Sustainability, Ground Water Management, Irrigation projects, Drinking Water, Water shed management and Policy & Governance. The data for 22 KPIs are being collected at district level and 9 KPIs at state level. The 5th and 6th rounds of CWMI corresponding to the years 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively are on-going.

Who’s Who

Name	Designation	Email ID
Shri Yugal Kishore Joshi	Program Director	yugal[dot]joshi[at]gov[dot]in
Dr. Bishwanath Bishoi	Deputy Adviser	b[dot]bishoi[at]gov[dot]com
Sh. A. Muralidharan	Deputy Adviser	amdharan[at]gov[dot]com
Ms. Varina Nathani	Deputy Secretary	varina[dot]nathani[at]gov[dot]in
Ms. Ravinder Kaur Bains	Under Secretary	ravinderkaurbains[dot]pb[at]nic[dot]in
Sh. K.K. Makwana	Economic Officer	kmakwana[at]gov[dot]in
Dr. Mamta Bisht	Consultant, Gr. -I	bisht[dot]mamta[at]niti[dot]gov[dot]in
Sh. Saroj Kumar Nayak	Consultant, Gr. -I	saroj[dot]kn[at]niti[dot]gov[dot]in
Ms. Richa Thakur	Young Professional	richa[dot]thakur[at]niti[dot]gov[dot]in
Ms. Shipra Singh	Young Professional	shipra[dot]s[at]niti[dot]gov[dot]in