News Brief
Niti Aayog (image via Facebook)
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government on Tuesday (16 July) reconstituted the NITI Aayog, with four full-time members and 15 union ministers, including representatives from BJP allies, as either ex-officio members or special invitees.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi retains his role as chairperson, with economist Suman K Bery continuing as vice-chairperson, according to an official notification.
Scientist V K Saraswat, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, paediatrician V K Paul, and macro-economist Arvind Virmani will remain full-time members of the government think-tank.
The four ex-officio members are Union Ministers Rajnath Singh (Defence), Amit Shah (Home), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Agriculture), and Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance).
The Prime Minister has approved the revised composition of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), the notification said.
Other special invitees are Union Ministers Virendra Kumar (Social Justice and Empowerment), Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu (Civil Aviation), Jual Oram (Tribal Affairs), Annpurna Devi (Women and Child Development), Chirag Paswan (Food Processing Industries), and Rao Inderjit Singh (Statistics and Programme Implementation).
Kumaraswamy is from NDA ally JD-S, Manjhi from Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rajiv Ranjan Singh from JD-U, Naidu from TDP, and Paswan from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
The National Institution for Transforming India, known as 'NITI Aayog', was set up in 2015, replacing the 65-year-old Planning Commission.
"Embracing a vision for holistic development and innovation, NITI Aayog is on a journey of transformative initiatives that promise to redefine India's future," the Aayog stated in a Facebook post.