New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the conference of chief secretaries, which began on January 5 and will continue till Saturday.

The three-day deliberations, where Union ministries' secretaries are also participating, are mainly focussed on ensuring how districts can be developed as proponents of growth and development to achieve the target of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2026-27.

Modi will mainly be chairing the deliberations on Friday and Saturday, sources informed. He will also address the chief secretaries and the Central government secretaries.

On Thursday, Niti Aayog CEO Parmeswaran Iyer inaugurated the proceedings, which began at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa campus here.

Apart from deliberations on how to achieve the $5 trillion economy target, the meeting will also focus on achieving rapid and sustained economic growth in partnership with the states, sources said.

This is the second edition of the conference, which was first held last year in Dharamshala.

The idea behind this conference is to enforce the belief that cooperative federalism, through central ministries and departments working together with states in seamless coordination, is an essential pillar for the development and progress of the country.

The timeline for India becoming a $5 trillion economy was earlier 2024-25, which now has been revised to 2026-27, owing to disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.