Amitabh Kant gets extension as Niti Aayog CEO
Kant has been instrumental in the functioning of the government’s Startup India and Digital India policies.
Amitabh Kant has been the architect behind Startup India, Make in India, and Digital India programmes. He, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has created a system where Indians can aspire to go global and make India a forerunner in business.
In 2016 Kant was appointed CEO of Niti Aayog. He has, according to an official order, been given an extension until June 30, 2019. His two-year term was to come to an end by the end of this month. The extension has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet with the order issued by the government.
Kant is from the 1980 IAS batch and was part of the Kerala cadre.
Before taking over as CEO of National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog), he was Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and was instrumental in promoting startups and making Indian cities smarter.
In an interview with YourStory, last year, he had said that only entrepreneurs can build the country and add jobs.
“In India, it is becoming important and imperative to create a mindset that works towards making things from scratch. In the West, people have that already and are building drones and manufacturing setups and units. India’s challenges are different,” he says.
Amitabh Kant along with Niti Aayog created a three-year action plan for the country last year. Some of the highlights were:
- It talks about a framework for fiscal prudence and financial health of the country.
- It talks about making agriculture productive, which was clearly visible in the Union Budget 2018.
- It talks about rapid urban development.
- It puts forth a plan about how public-private partnership can push digital India.
- It also creates a vision for India to be a leader in healthcare and education.
His tenure will come to an end just after the 2019 general elections.
