Rajiv Kumar, the vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, resigned from his post yesterday. He will be replaced by Suman Bery. Rajiv Kumar occupied the coveted post in the important policy tink tank since 2017. He will be replaced by Suman Bery. The reason for Rajiv Kumar’s resignation is not known. Rajiv Kumar had joined vice-chairman of Niti Aayog in August 2017 when Arvind Panagariya left NITI Aayog to return to academics.The Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog has the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister.
Ministry of Personnel has announced that the cabinet appointments committee has accepted Rajiv Kumar’s resignation and has appointed Suman Bery as a full-time member and Vice-chairperson of the NITI Aayog, effective May 1. Rajiv Kumar will be relieved from the post with effect from April 30.
Rajiv Kumar’s involvement with NITI AAyog saw his stamp on key policy decisons with focus on agriculture, asset monetisation, disinvestment, aspirational districts programme and electric vehicles, among others.
Rajiv Kumar holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford University and a PhD from Lucknow University. He was also a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). He has served on the Central Boards of State Bank of India for two terms and on the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Rajiv Kumar is also a member of the boards of several international and national institutions, including the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and Asia in Jakarta, and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
Rajiv Kumar was the Chief Economist of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the Secretary-General of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry(FICCI) in the past
Mr Suman Bery had earlier served as Director-General (Chief Executive) of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi. He is a non-resident fellow of Bruegel, an economic policy research institution in Brussels. He has 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.
Suman Berry has served the National Council of Applied Economic Research or NCAER, one of the country’s leading independent policy research institutes earlier. Suman Berry is a Global Fellow in the Asia Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC.
Suman Bery was has served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Statistical Commission and the Reserve Bank of India’s Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary Policy.
Bery had an important association with Shell. He was chief economist at Shell International in the Netherlands. He has advised the board and management of Royal Dutch Shell and has been part of the senior leadership of Shell’s Global Scenario Group.
