Centre reconstitutes NITI Aayog, brings in allies as special invitees

• The government reconstituted the NITI Aayog, increasing the number of special invitees from five to 11,

Highlights:

• The Prime Minister remains the Chairperson and economist Suman K Bery will continue to be the Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog, according to the notification.
• Scientist V K Saraswat, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, pediatrician V K Paul and macro-economist Arvind Virmani will also continue to be full-time members of the government think-tank. BVR Subrahmanyam will also remain the CEO.
• The new Union Agriculture Minister has replaced his predecessor as an ex-officio member.
• The other ex-officio members include Finance Minister, Home Minister and Defence Minister.
• Among the other special invitees are Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways), J P Nadda (Health), Virendra Kumar (Social Justice and Empowerment), Jual Oram (Tribal Affairs), Annapurna Devi (Women and Child Development) and Rao Inderjit Singh (Statistics and Programme Implementation).
• Among the allies who have been included,
  • Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel portfolio,
  • Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises,
  • Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying,
  • Minister for Civil Aviation, and
  • Minister for Food Processing Industries.

Prelims Takeaway:

• Niti Aayog
• India Council