Economist Rajiv Kumar to be new Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog

Economist Dr. Rajiv Kumar has been selected as the new Vice Chairman of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog on Saturday.

Dr Kumar is currently a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a non-governmental think thank on public policy.

According to CPR, Dr Kumar holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford and a PhD from Lucknow University.

On August 1, Arvind Panagariya resigned from his post as vice chairman, and will hand over charge of his office on August 31.

The Indian American economist is reportedly returning to the United States to resume his academics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appointed him as the first vice-chairman of NITI Aayog on January 5, 2015.

Earlier, Panagariya served as a professor of Economics at New York's Columbia University till.

A Rajasthan University alumnus, Panagariya holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Princeton University.

Panagariya has in the past been the Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and a Professor of Economics and Co-director, Center for International Economics, University of Maryland at College Park.

He has also worked for the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in various capacities.