PM Modi reconstitutes Niti Aayog; Amit Shah ex-officio member

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the first meeting of NITI Aayog's governing council on June 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved reconstitution of the policy think tank. While Rajiv Kumar continue to remain the vice chairman with V K Saraswat, Ramesh Chand and Dr V K Paul as members, the name of economist Bibek Debroy was dropped.

The statement issued by PIB on Thursday night however did not find name of Amitabh Kant, who was CEO at NITI Aayog in NDA-I. The newly constituted NITI Aayog will have defence minister Raj Nath Singh, home minister Amit Shah, Finance and Corporate Affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman, agriculture, farmers welfare and rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar as ex-officio members.
Among the special invitees are Nitin Gadkari, minister of road transport and highways, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, PiyushGoyal, Minister of Railways; andMinister of Commerce and Industry, Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics.


Prime Minister on June 15 will chair the fifth meeting of NITI Aayog's Governing Council to discuss various issues concerning water management, agriculture and security, official sources said Tuesday.

The council, the top body of NITI Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of union territories, several union ministers and senior government officials. This will be the first governing council meeting under the new Modi government.

"All the chief ministers and heads of union territories have been invited by the NITI Aayog to participate in the meeting," sources said. The Governing Council is expected to discuss important subjects, including major issues concerning water management, agriculture, and aspirational district programme, according to official sources.