Rajiv Kumar has stepped down as Niti Aayog vice-chairmanNEW DELHI: Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar has stepped down from his post after nearly five years at the helm and will be replaced by economist Suman Bery.
“Yes. I have stepped down,” Kumar told TOI when asked about the sudden development, without elaborating further.The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet accepted the resignation of Kumar with effect from April 30.
“Appointment of Dr Suman K Bery initially as full time member, Niti Aayog with immediate effect and upto 30.4.2022 on the same terms and conditions as are applicable to full time members of Niti Aayog,” a government order said.
It also said that Bery has been appointed vice chairman of Niti Aayog with effect from May 1, 2022 on the same terms that were applicable to the previous vice chairman. Kumar had the rank of a cabinet minister as vice chairman of the government think tank.
He took over as vice chairman of the government think tank in August 2017 after Arvind Panagariya decided to return to his teaching assignment at Columbia University.
The move to replace Kumar has been sudden. The tenure of the vice chairman has traditionally been co-terminus with the term of the government. The prime minister serves as the chairman of the government think tank which took shape after the erstwhile Planning Commission was shut down.
Suman Bery is a well-known economist and served as the Director-General of the economic think tank National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). He has also been a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, the Statistical Commission and the technical committee of the Reserve Bank of India. He has also worked for the World Bank during the country’s economic reforms; he worked as a special consultant to the Reserve Bank of India and was on leave from the World Bank.
Kumar has extensive experience of having worked in academia, government, industry as well as in multilateral institutions. After completing his DPhil at Oxford, Dr. Kumar started his academic career in the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations(ICRIER), according to the details on the Niti Aayog website. He has also worked with the Asian Development Bank, UNIDO, UNCTAD and the World Bank.
Kumar also worked in the private sector, serving as chief economist with industry lobby group CII and secretary general of FICCI.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
