Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to skip NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will skip the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, sources in the state secretariat said.

The reason behind Banerjee's decision not to participate in the meeting was undisclosed, they said.

During the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the tenth NITI Aayog's Governing Council meeting, which is expected to deliberate on the roadmap for making India a developed nation by 2047.

It will be the first major meeting of the prime minister with the chief ministers of states and Union Territories after Operation Sindoor.

There was no official statement about who would represent West Bengal in the meeting in the absence of the chief minister, the sources said.

Chief Secretary Manoj Pant is likely to be present in the meeting, they said.

The meeting is expected to deliberate on the initiatives taken in the Budget 2025-26 and the challenges being faced by the Indian economy.

The country's economy is facing headwinds following the imposition of reciprocal tariffs by the US administration under President Donald Trump.

India is expected to grow in the range of 6.2-6.7 per cent in the current fiscal, despite the possibility of the US economy slipping into recession, China's growth taking a heavy beating and globally, countries seeing slowing economic activity.