According to news agencies, the government appointed BVR Subrahmanyam, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre from Andhra Pradesh with an engineering degree and a management degree from London Business School, as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NITI Aayog on Monday. This comes as a replacement for Parameswaran Iyer, who has been named as the Executive Director of the World Bank. The government released a statement stating that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Subrahmanyam as CEO of NITI Aayog, in place of Iyer, for a period of two years from the date of taking over the post or until further orders.
The 56-year-old official served as a private secretary to the former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, from 2004 to 2008, before working with the World Bank. He rejoined the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in 2012 and continued to work there until 2015. He then moved to Chhattisgarh, where he first served as a principal secretary and later as an Additional Chief Secretary (Home).
In 2018, he was appointed as the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir. During his tenure, the state lost its special status and was divided into two union territories, a decision which only a few officers, including Subrahmanyam, were aware of prior to its announcement, according to the Press Trust of India. After his stint in Jammu and Kashmir, he served as the Commerce Secretary to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog was established on January 1, 2015, in place of the Planning Commission, following the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition in the 2014 elections. The first meeting of NITI Aayog was held on February 8, 2015, with Prime Minister Modi as the chair.
Being the topmost think tank of the Indian government, NITI Aayog provides both policy and directional inputs. As per its official website, the think tank is currently developing itself as a modern resource center, equipped with the essential knowledge and skills to respond rapidly, promote research and innovation, and provide strategic policy recommendations to the government while addressing unforeseen challenges.
Among its various goals, NITI Aayog aims to promote cooperative
federalism, create a common vision for national development priorities,
sectors, and strategies by involving all the states actively, and
establish mechanisms to prepare reliable plans at the grassroots level
and gradually consolidate them at higher levels of the government.