B.V.R. Subrahmanyam joined as Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog on Saturday. An Indian Administrative Service Officer of 1987 batch (Chhattisgarh cadre), Subrahmanyam has held important assignments over the last three decades in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jammu & Kashmir, along with a stint at the World Bank. He takes over for Parameswaran Iyer, who has been designated the World Bank’s Executive Director.
#NITIAayog welcomes Shri B.V.R. Subrahmanyam as the new Chief Executive Officer.
Shri Subrahmanyam, a 1987-batch IAS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, has previously served as Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, and Chief Secretary, Jammu & Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/GFysz7oFut
— NITI Aayog (@NITIAayog) February 25, 2023
Subrahmanyam has held posts in the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the ministries of commerce and industry. He served as chief secretary for Jammu and Kashmir and principal secretary for the government of Chhattisgarh.
Subrahmanyam remarked upon taking over the public policy think tank of the Government of India, “I am humbled by the trust and responsibility reposed in me by the Hon’ble Prime Minister and will try my best to rise up to his expectations.”
The 56-year-old officer served as then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s private secretary from 2004 to 2008. He returned to the Prime Minister’s Office in 2012 after working for the World Bank. Subrahmanyam was employed by the PMO until 2015, at which point he relocated back to Chhattisgarh, where he first served as a principal secretary before rising to the position of Additional Chief Secretary (Home).
In 2018, the officer was appointed the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir. It was during his tenure that the state’s special status was scrapped and it was divided into two union territories.
What is NITI Aayog?
As the apex think tank of India’s government, NITI Aayog provides both directional and policy inputs. According to its website, the think tank “is developing itself as a state-of-the-art resource centre with the necessary knowledge and skills that will enable it to act with speed, promote research and innovation, provide strategic policy vision for the government, and deal with contingent issues.”
After the coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party took office in 2014, the Planning Commission was replaced by the NITI (National Institute for Transforming India) Aayog, which was established on January 1, 2015. Prime Minister Modi presided over the NITI Aayog’s inaugural meeting on February 8, 2015.
What are the objectives of the NITI Aayog?
The numerous objectives of the NITI Aayog include fostering cooperative federalism, evolving a shared vision of national development priorities, sectors and strategies with the active involvement of states, and developing mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government.