Rajiv Kumar steps down as Niti Aayog vice chairman: Reports

He is likely to be replaced by economist Suman Bery.

Rajiv Kumar has stepped down as vice chairman of Niti Aayog, the government’s policymaking body, multiple reports said on Friday. 

Kumar is likely to be replaced by economist Suman Bery, the Hindustan Times website reported. Kumar took over as vice chairman in August 2017 after his predecessor Arvind Panagariya left NITI Aayog, which replaced the Planning Commission.

Kumar has been at the Aayog since September 2017. Bery, who is likely to succeed him, was the director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, or NCAER, the independent policy research institution, from 2001 to 2011.

Bery, according to his LinkedIn profile, profile is a non-resident fellow of Bruegel, an economic policy research institution in Brussels. He 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.

PTI reported a reason for Kumar stepping down could not be immediately ascertained. Kumar took over as vice chairman in August 2017 after Arvind Panagariya left Aayog to return to academics.

Kumar holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford University and a PhD from Lucknow University. He was a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR).