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Informist, Saturday, Apr. 25, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Former chief economic adviser Ashok Lahiri has been appointed vice-chairperson of NITI Aayog, the government said in a notification published Saturday. Four of the five members of the apex policy think tank have also been replaced. Ex-officio members and special invitees, largely government ministers, will remain unchanged, the notification said.

 

Lahiri will replace Suman Bery, whose term is set to end Thursday after four years at the helm. Lahiri was chief economic adviser in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh governments between 2002 and 2007. He is currently a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and has not stood for re-election in the ongoing polls. Lahiri has also been the chairman of Bandhan Bank Ltd.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is ex-officio chairman of NITI Aayog, met Lahiri on Saturday. "His rich experience in economics and public policy will greatly strengthen India's reform journey and the journey towards becoming a Viksit Bharat," Modi said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "I am confident his efforts will further energise policymaking in our nation. My best wishes for a fruitful tenure."

 

In the notification, the cabinet secretariat said Rajiv Gauba, K.V. Raju, Gobardhan Das, Abhay Karandikar, and Dr. M. Srinivas will be members of the think tank. The prime minister also wished the reconstituted body a productive tenure. Current members Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Ramesh Chand, Vinod Kumar Paul, and Arvind Virmani will demit their posts. 

 

Former cabinet secretary Gauba has been part of the panel since March 2025. Raju is a part-time member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. Das is the director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal. Karandikar, a career academic, has been secretary in the department of science and technology, part of the Centre's science ministry, since 2023. Srinivas, a medical doctor, is the director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.  End

 

Reported by Aaryan Khanna

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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