Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reconstituted the NITI Aayog retaining Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar and three other members. Names of high profile member Bibek Debroy and Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant do not figure in the new team.
An official release said that Modi who will continue to be Chairman has retained VK Saraswat, Ramesh Chand and Dr VK Paul.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will be ex-officio members of the reconstituted body while Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Social Justice Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot, and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will be special invitees.
Minister of State for the Ministry of Statistics, Rao Inderjit Singh, will also be a special invitee.
The reconstitution comes ahead of the first meeting of NITI Aayog's Governing Council on June 15, after the Modi government returned to power following the elections.
Chief Ministers of all states, Governors, Lieutenant-Governors, Union Ministers, and senior officials are slated to participate in the meeting.
The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog was formed via a resolution of the Union Cabinet on January 1, 2015, by the Modi government after scrapping the Planning Commission, which was instituted in 1950.