Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant is set to leave the government think tank at the end of June after a six-year-long stint of heading the organisation. He will be replaced by Parameswaran Iyer, the former secretary of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and the force behind the government’s Swachh Bharat Mission. Iyer’s initial tenure will be for two years, according to a notification by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Kant’s tenure was extended by a year in June 2021. A 1980 batch retired IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, Kant has been the CEO of Niti Aayog since 2016. During his time at the organisation, Kant established himself at the top level of the government in policy matters relating to industrial development, technology and investment.
Iyer, his replacement, had resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 2009 after 17 years in service and then came back as secretary of the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (D0DWS) in 2016. He was the force behind the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a campaign to eradicate open defecation by constructing over 90 million toilets in rural India. In July 2020, he resigned from his post of secretary of DoDWS and later went on to work with the World Bank in the US.
Iyer, 63, has previously worked as Senior Rural Water Sanitation Specialist at the United Nations between April 1998 and February 2006. Iyer has also worked with the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh in the field of education.
