Rajiv Kumar steps down as NITI Aayog vice chairman, Suman Bery replaces him

Rajiv Kumar took over as vice chairman in August 2017 after his predecessor Arvind Panagariya exited the National Institution for Transforming India, better known as NITI Aayog, which replaced the Planning Commission.

NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar, who was appointed to India’s policy think tank five years ago, resigned on Friday. He has been succeeded by economist Suman Bery.

Dr Rajiv Kumar took over as NITI Aayog vice chairperson in 2017. (ANI)

The Ministry of Personnel in a statement said that the appointments committee of the cabinet had accepted the resignation of Rajiv Kumar and appointed Suman Bery as the full-time member of the NITI Aayog and later as the vice chairperson from May 1.

Kumar took over as vice chairman in August 2017 after his predecessor Arvind Panagariya exited the National Institution for Transforming India, better known as NITI Aayog, which replaced the Planning Commission.

Suman Bery, who is likely to succeed Rajiv Kumar, was the director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, or NCAER, one of the country's leading independent policy research institution, for 10 years from 2001 to 2011.

Suman Bery, a senior visiting fellow at the Delhii-headquartered Centre for Policy Research, is a Global Fellow in the Asia program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. He is a Non-resident Fellow of Bruegel, an economic policy research institution located in Brussels.

He also served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, India’s Statistical Commission and of the Reserve Bank of India’s Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary Policy.