Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has restructured the NITI Aayog, reaffirming his position as chairperson and keeping economist Suman K. Bery as the vice-chairperson.
On July 16, the Modi administration announced the reconstitution of NITI Aayog, incorporating four full-time members and including 15 Union Ministers as ex-officio members or special invitees, some of whom are from BJP’s allied parties.
The full-time members appointed are scientist V.K. Saraswat, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, paediatrician V.K. Paul, and macro-economist Arvind Virmani.
Among the ex-officio members are Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Special invitees to the restructured NITI Aayog include Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways), Jagat Prakash Nadda (Health), H.D. Kumaraswamy (Heavy Industries and Steel), Jitan Ram Manjhi (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), and Rajiv Ranjan Singh, also known as Lalan Singh (Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying).
Other special invitees are Virendra Kumar (Social Justice and Empowerment), Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu (Civil Aviation), Jual Oram (Tribal Affairs), Annpurna Devi (Women and Child Development), Chirag Paswan (Food Processing Industries), and Rao Inderjit Singh (Statistics and Programme Implementation).
H.D. Kumaraswamy represents the JD-S, Jitan Ram Manjhi is from Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rajiv Ranjan Singh is from JD-U, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu is from TDP, and Chirag Paswan is from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
