Leading Economist Dr Rajiv Kumar Named NITI Aayog Vice Chairman

Leading economist Dr Rajiv Kumar is the new vice chairman of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. Dr Kumar is currently a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a non-governmental think tank on public policy.

Dr Kumar, who holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford and a PhD from Lucknow University, will take charge as vice-chairman on 31 August, a post that fell vacant following the resignation of Arvind Panagariya.

Between 2006 and 2008, he was a member of the National Security Advisory Board, and earlier secretary general of the Federation of India Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He had also served as director and chief executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, according to Press Trust of India. He has held senior positions in the Asian Development Bank, the Indian Ministry of Industries, and the Ministry of Finance.

Kumar is also a member of boards of several international and national institutions, including the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and Asia in Jakarta, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and the State Bank of India.

Dr Kumar has also contributed articles to Swarajya, links to which are here and here.

With inputs from ANI