The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that states must focus on long term economic model for the betterment of the people and must not settle for short-term populist measures. Addressing the gathering after presenting India Today State of State Awards 2018, he said that the relationship between the states and the centre must be built on trust, transparency and mutual respect. Naidu said both parties should practice openness and should not be limited by narrow political divisiveness. He further said that there is an agenda greater than politics before all of us, the agenda of taking development to the last man, the goal of ensuring Antyodaya. Federals should not end at door steps of State capitals, they must reach to villages, he added.

The Vice President said that political differences must end with the elections and there after the ruling party must not be bogged down by dilatory tactics and the opposition parties must be given the space to offer constructive criticism in the legislature. He further said that a measure of accommodative openness must be practiced by both the centre and the states if we were to build a strong team India where every voice has its own space.

Saying that federalism, cultural & ethnic pluralism gave country's political system the much needed agility, the Vice President said that continuation of the same requires not simply federalism, but cooperative and constructive federalism. He further said that cooperative federalism has been India’s mantra for centre-state unity, cohesion and harmony and there was every need to continue what the unifier of India, Sardar Patel had said.

Naidu said that only decentralization of decision making and devolution of resources to states and local self governments would pave the way to fulfill the development needs of India. He said that it was heartening to note that the government recognized the need to empower states and created the NITI Aayog by a resolution of the Union Cabinet on 1st January 2015 to provide the quintessential platform of the Government of India to bring States to act together in national interest, and thereby fosters Cooperative Federalism. The Vice President said that development is a collective process and several factors determine the pace of it. Development also does not always make noise and often does not find space in front pages and prime times.