Mumbai, Aug 1 (Deccan Chronicle): Arvind Panagariya, who was first vice-chairman of Niti Aayog, has resigned from his post, reports said on Tuesday. Panagariya is an Indian American economist and before he joined Niti Aayog he was professor of economics at Columbia University.
His last day in office would be August 31. Panagariya has said that he will return to academia. This could be termed as yet another high-profile exit from a crucial high profile government institution.
RBI governor Raghuram Rajan who is also an economist walked out of doors of central bank after months of speculation about him and his 'patchy' relationship with the NDA government.
Panagariya has also served as chief economist at the Asian Development Bank. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his government will scrap decades old Planning Commission and bring in its place a think tank that later came to be known as Niti Aayog.
After the Niti came into existence, Panagariya found himself as front runner for the vice-chairman's post. Like Planning Commission, Prime Minister is the chairman of Niti Aayog.
Panagariya is a writer as well. He has written or edited as many as ten books. However, the reason for his resignation was not known. It may be noted that Panagariya as Niti chairman had threw his weight behind each and every policy move of Narendra Modi government. He had also supported the highly-publicised demonetisation termed as anti-black money crackdown.