Somewhere in Anurag Jain’s trophy cabinet sit eleven national awards for tennis. He has also represented Madhya Pradesh in cricket — a combination rare enough among civil servants to invite a theory: that the 1989-batch IAS officer’s reputation for competitiveness and grinding preparation was formed on the court long before it reached the secretariat.
On Wednesday, that reputation carried him to one of Delhi’s most consequential policy perches, as the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet named him chief executive officer of NITI Aayog for two years. His appointment ends a five-month interregnum during which Nidhi Chhibber held additional charge after B.V.R. Subrahmanyam’s extended tenure ended in February. It also completes a rejig of the think tank’s top deck, following Ashok Lahiri’s appointment as vice-chairman along with six new members.
The appointment surprised few. If the government has a template for its most trusted civil servants — an engineer’s training, PMO experience and a record of implementing flagship schemes rather than merely drafting them — Jain fits it closely.
Track Record
Born in Gwalior in 1965, Jain graduated in electrical engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1986 before choosing the civil services over a corporate career. A Master’s in Public Administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School followed. Colleagues say the combination shows: he approaches governance like an engineer confronting a faulty circuit, looking for the broken node rather than repainting the panel.
That instinct surfaced early during field postings as collector of Mandla, Mandsaur and Bhopal. In Bhopal, he began digitising land records by overlaying them on satellite maps, an experiment the state later replicated. The posting also produced an anecdote old Madhya Pradesh hands still recount. When caste tensions flared between Dalits and Brahmins in a locality in 2002, the young collector’s answer was not a curfew but a community feast cooked by Dalit families, with both communities eating together.
His defining state assignment came as secretary to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for more than five years from 2005. Jain helped draft the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Guarantee Act, pioneering legislation on time-bound delivery of government services that was later emulated by other states. He was closely involved with the Ladli Laxmi Yojana, which became one of Chouhan’s signature programmes, and, as IT secretary, helped attract major technology investments to the state.
A central deputation from 2011 widened his canvas. At the Department of Financial Services, Jain was closely associated with the conception and implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which became the world’s largest financial-inclusion programme. A stint as joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office followed, along with assignments as acting chairman of Exim Bank and vice-chairman of the Delhi Development Authority.
It was at the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade from September 2021, however, that Jain’s stock rose sharply. He became a key architect of the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, the GIS-based platform designed to bring infrastructure planning across ministries onto a common digital map. The work won him the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2023. His tenure also encompassed the rollout of the National Logistics Policy, coordination of Production Linked Incentive schemes and efforts to simplify investor clearances.
At the ministry of road transport and highways from April 2023, Jain acquired the moniker “Highway Man”, though his signature intervention was characteristically about process rather than ribbon-cutting. The ministry pushed to ensure that most land acquisition was completed before highway work orders were issued. Awards initially slowed, but the change sought to address a chronic cause of stalled projects: unresolved land disputes. His tenure also saw a greater focus on high-speed, access-controlled corridors and the preparation of a Vision 2047 roadmap for the highway network.
Jain’s route to NITI Aayog ran, somewhat unusually, through home. In October 2024, he returned to Bhopal as Madhya Pradesh chief secretary. Granted an extension beyond superannuation, he was due to continue until August 31. Delhi called him back six weeks early, with Ashok Barnwal, a 1991-batch officer, named officiating chief secretary in his place.
Road to NITI Aayog
He now inherits an institution deeply involved in the Viksit Bharat 2047 exercise, Centre-state coordination on manufacturing and infrastructure, and the government’s push on logistics and digital governance — terrain that maps almost perfectly onto his résumé. The challenge will be to make NITI Aayog more than a producer of policy papers and long-term visions. Its influence ultimately depends on its ability to break departmental silos, persuade states to buy into reform and translate ambitious targets into executable programmes. Jain’s Gati Shakti experience, built around integrated planning, common data and coordination across ministries, could prove particularly relevant.
Those who have worked with him describe a boss who is courteous, methodical, allergic to shortcuts and famously demanding of detail — traits one senior Madhya Pradesh officer summed up, when Jain became chief secretary, with the rueful observation that the easy days end the moment he walks in.
A man who has won national honours in one sport and represented his state in another does not, presumably, play for a draw. Raisina Road has been warned.
(With inputs from Mukesh Jagota)
