Rajiv Kumar, the vice-chairman of the NITI Aayog, stepped down from the post on Friday after assuming the role at India’s policy think tank five years ago. Suman Bery, an economist, has taken his place.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Personnel, the cabinet’s appointments committee has accepted Rajiv Kumar’s resignation and selected Suman Bery as a full-time member of the NITI Aayog and vice-chairperson, effective from May 1.
*The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the following:*
(i) Accepting the resignation of Dr. Rajiv Kumar and relieving him from the post
of the Vice-Chairperson, NITI Aayog w.e.f. 30.04.2022; pic.twitter.com/Us0QX8FDzr— DD News (@DDNewslive) April 22, 2022
After his predecessor Arvind Panagariya left the National Institution for Transforming India, commonly known as NITI Aayog, which replaced the erstwhile name Planning Commission, Kumar took over as vice chairman in August 2017.
Suman Bery, who will be taking over the role of Rajiv Kumar, served as the director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), one of India’s independent policy research institutions, for a decade from 2001 to 2011.
Suman Bery is a Global Scholar in the Asia program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and a senior visiting fellow at the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research. Besides, he is a Non-resident Fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economic policy research institute.
He was also a part of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, India’s Statistical Commission, and the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Technical Advisory Committee.