New Delhi: At the Eleventh Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog, held recently in Delhi, on June 11, 2026, newly elected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, C. Joseph Vijay, shared his plan of turning the state into a $ 1.5 trillion economy by 2036.Vijay’s speech also seemed to take a cue from his predecessor, the erstwhile Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, when it came to the implementation of the National Education Policy. “I also request the Government of India to release the pending Samagra Shiksha Scheme funds amounting to Rs 3,284 crore early without conditionalities and without linking the same to the implementation of New Education Policy (NEP) or without insisting on the three language policy, in the larger interest of student’s welfare”, he was quoted as saying, at the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by chief ministers of 28 states and five Union Territories. In 2025, the then DMK-led government, under former chief minister M.K. Stalin, had opposed the NEP, describing it as an act “against social justice”. In May 2025, the DMK government had even approached the Supreme Court accusing the Union government of “blocking funds worth Rs 2,151 crore” for saying no to the implementation of NEP. In an interview to The Wire, then Tamil Nadu Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services, P. Thiaga Rajan, had said “the state government and the Union government are “deadlocked” over the National Education Policy 2020, which the former government believes is an attempt to subordinate and subjugate through the imposition of Hindi.”Among other ambitious projects, listed by CM Vijay in his speech, for which he sought assistance from the BJP-led NDA government at the Union included: central assistance of Rs 2,283.40 crore for the Hogenakkal Phase-III Combined Water Supply Scheme, enhanced support for permanent flood mitigation infrastructure along the 1,076 km coastline permanently affected by cyclones and flooding, and declaring the Space Manufacturing Hub at Kulasekarapattinam. On a day when the chief minister of Tamil Nadu shared his priorities for India’s second-largest economy, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)-led government under him received support from another ally in the state. As reported by the New Indian Express, the Communist Party of India (CPI) made an announcement that it is no longer part of the DMK-led alliance.“People had given TVK a mandate to form the government. In light of that verdict, the CPI decided to extend outside support to ensure that Tamil Nadu was not placed under President’s Rule or forced into another election”, CPI state secretary, M Veerapandian, was quoted as saying.