To succeed Amitabh Kant, whose term as head of the NITI Aayog ends on June 30, the government has appointed Parameswaran Iyer as the organization’s new CEO.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet announced on Friday that Iyer had been appointed on the same terms and conditions as applicable to Shri Amitabh Kant for a two-year tenure or until further orders, whichever comes first.
Iyer, an IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, oversaw the government’s Swachh Bharat Mission from 2016 to 2020. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1981 and voluntarily retired in 2009 to work on the World Bank’s water and sanitation projects. Iyer was appointed by the government to head the drinking and sanitation department and to oversee the Swachh Bharat Mission after he returned to India in 2016.
Iyer worked for the World Bank in Vietnam, China, Egypt, Lebanon, and Washington before to joining the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in 2016. Iyer left the role in 2020 and went back to the US to rejoin the World Bank.
On February 17, 2016, Kant was chosen to serve a two-year term as the NITI Aayog’s CEO. He has since received three term extensions. Kant is credited for compiling a long list of public sector organisations for asset monetisation and disinvestment. He played a key role in creating the national monetisation pipeline and the production related incentive programme, which laid out the government’s road plan for the following six years.
Kant oversaw several important initiatives during his long tenure at NITI Aayog, including the government’s aim to promote electric mobility, the aspirational district programme, the ease of doing business programme, the Start-up India programme, and the island development programme. He was currently working across six sectors on the circular economy.