Arvind Panagariya appointed Vice Chairman of Modi’s NITI Aayog

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Jan 05, 2015: Eminent economist Arvind Panagariya has been appointed as the Vice Chairman of the newly-formed NITI Aayog. PMO sources have confirmed the appointment.

Panagariya, a professor of Economics in Columbia University, has been a vocal critic of UPA government’s policies.

This was after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday scrapped 65-year-old Planning Commission, which he had accused of stifling growth with Soviet-style bureaucracy, replacing it with the new  National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog.

The Aayog will act more like a think tank or forum, say its supporters, in contrast with the Commission which imposed five-year-plans and allocated resources to hit set economic targets.

Despite being widely blamed for the slow growth that long plagued the country, the Commission survived the market reforms of the early 1990s, riling Modi with its interventions when he was premier of the fast-growing state of Gujarat.

In a series of messages to his 9.1 million followers on Twitter, Modi had said the body would replace the old one-size-fits-all approach with a "pro-people, pro-active & participative development agenda".

Modi, elected by a landslide last year on a promise to revive flagging growth and create jobs, had vowed to do away with the Planning Commission that was set up in 1950 by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

But his plans were criticised by the opposition Congress party, which wants to defend Nehru’s legacy and regards Modi’s vision of "cooperative federalism" as cover for a veiled power grab.

NITI will include leaders of India’s 29 federal states and seven union territories. But its full-time staff - its deputy chairman, chief executive and experts - will answer directly to the 64-year-old prime minister.


Courtesy: Indianews