Centre overhauls NITI Aayog leadership team
Ashok Kumar Lahiri appointed as vice chairman with 4 new full-time members to drive strategic innovation
The Centre on Saturday reconstituted the Niti Aayog, appointing former chief economic advisor Ashok Kumar Lahiri as vice chairman and five full-time members, including economist KV Raju, Director of AIIMS M Srinivas and Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is Chairman of the Niti Aayog, announced the appointments through his social media platform and wished the new body a productive and impactful tenure.
“The Government has reconstituted the NITI Aayog. My best wishes to Ashok Kumar Lahiri on becoming the Vice Chairman. My best wishes also to Shri Rajiv Gauba Ji, Prof KV Raju Ji, Prof Gobardhan Das Ji, Prof Abhay Karandikar Ji and Dr M Srinivas Ji on becoming full-time members of NITI Aayog. Wishing all of them a productive and impactful tenure ahead,” Modi said in a social media post.
The new appointments come in the middle of the West Bengal Assembly elections as the second phase is due on April 29, and the ruling party, BJP at the Centre, is looking for a good prospect in the State to wrest power from the TMC after the first phase on April 23 witnessed a record polling.
Lahiri is a sitting BJP MLA in the outgoing West Bengal Assembly and is being looked after as a much respected political and social figure in the State. While Das is a Dalit and had allegedly faced attacks from TMC cadre that followed in the 2021 Assembly polls.
BJP strategist sources also said the BJP is projecting itself to counter the prominence of Amit Mitra, who is the current Special Advisor to Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, on Finance. Previously, Mitra has served as the Finance, Commerce & Industries Minister of the TMC Government.
Lahiri called on the PM and thanked him for his appointment. Lahiri takes the place of Suman K Bery, who has been the vice chairman of Niti Aayog since May 2022. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Ramesh Chand, Vinod Kumar Paul, Arvind Virmani and Gauba were the members.
The PM said that the Niti Aayog has emerged as a vital pillar in India’s policy-making architecture, fostering cooperative federalism, furthering reforms and boosting ‘Ease of Living’. “It serves as a dynamic platform for innovation and long-term strategic thinking across sectors,” he said.
Lahiri is amongst India’s most experienced and senior economists with a career spanning over four decades. Currently a BJP MLA in West Bengal, he is a former chief economic advisor to the Government of India and a member of the 15th Finance Commission. He is not contesting the ongoing Assembly election in the State.
While Raju is a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. He also serves as the economic advisor to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Karandikar is currently Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST). Before joining DST in October 2023, he served as the Director of IIT-Kanpur.
Das is the director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal. Before assuming this position, he was working as a professor and chair of the Special Centre for Molecular Medicine at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Srinivas is the director of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He has had an illustrious career with more than three decades of experience in various positions in the academic, administrative and research fields.
Lahiri said he will serve in the key post with all sincerity, good intentions and clear policies (Niti, Niyot and Nistha) as envisioned by the prime minister. Das also thanked the prime minister for allowing him to serve as a member of the Niti Aayog. “Today is a very important day in my life. I am the son of an ordinary farmer family from the Dalit class in a remote village of West Bengal.
