The newly elected second Narendra Modi government has decided to reconstitute the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog, the government think tank formed by the first Modi government replacing the Planning Commission.
Niti Aayog is chaired by the Prime Minister of India, and its vice chairperson Dr Rajiv Kumar has been retained in the same post by the government. V. K. Saraswat, Prof. Ramesh Chand and Dr. V.K. Paul are retained as full-time members of the Aayog, while Bibek Debroy has been dropped who was also a member.
There were speculations that Debroy will not be included in the newly constituted Niti Aayog, to which he had responded with a limerick on Twitter.
News that is fake
Leaves mirth in its wake.
If media checked precedence
It wouldn’t suffer from decadence,
But that is not quite my headache.— Bibek Debroy (@bibekdebroy) June 6, 2019
The name of Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s name is also missing from the notification issued by the government.
The ex-officio members of the Niti Aayog are, Defence minister Raj Nath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, And Agriculture and Farmers welfare minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who is also the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.
The special invitees to the Aayog Are, Road Transport and Highways, and MSME minister Nitin Gadkari, Social Justice and Empowerment minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Railway Minister and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, and Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, who is the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Ministry of Planning.
