Rajiv Kumar named vice-chairman of NITI Aayog

Centre appoints paediatrician Vinod Paul as new member

The Centre on Saturday appointed well-known economist Rajiv Kumar as the new vice-chairman of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, five days after his predecessor Arvind Panagariya quit, citing his desire to pursue academic interests.

The government also appointed Vinod Paul, a paediatrician at the AIIMS who has worked in public health, as a member of the NITI Aayog. Economist Bibek Debroy, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand and scientist V K Saraswat are the other three members.

Kumar has a DPhil in economics from Oxford University and a PhD from Lucknow University. He is a senior fellow at the Centre for