Picture Courtesy: The Indian Express
Economist Rajiv Kumar has been appointed as the new vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, succeeding well-known economist Arvind Panagariya for the coveted post. Vinod Paul, head of the Pediatrics department at AIIMS, was also appointed as a member of the NITI Aayog.
Earlier this week, 64-year-old Panagairya had stepped down as vice-chairman of the Niti Aayog after requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to relieve him of his duties by August 31 to allow him to return to Columbia University as a professor of economics.
According to several media reports, Kumar, who holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford and a PhD from Lucknow University, is a senior fellow at public policy think-tank Centre for Policy and Research (CPR) and has authored several books on the Indian economy and India’s national security.
Before coming to CPR, Kumar served as Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He had also held positions as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), as well as in positions with the Asian Development Bank, the Indian Ministry of Industries, and the Ministry of Finance.
