Arvind Panagariya, NITI Aayog vice chairman resigned from his post on Tuesday afternoon, according to a report by CNN-News 18. The National Institution for Transforming India’s (NITI Aayog) vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya quit from his post just a few hours after chairing a meeting. The details of Panagariya’s resignation are not clear but he is likely to join the Columbia University once again. Panagariya not only chaired but also gave concluding remarks in the Advisory Group meeting of NITI Aayog on re integration in States. He was reportedly handpicked for the job. Despite the resignation, Arvind Panagariya will serve in office until August 31.

Before joining the NITI Aayog, Panagariya was the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University. He was also serving as the chief economist at the Asian Development Bank. After getting a PhD degree in economics from Princeton University, he worked as a professor of economics and co-director, Center for International Economics, University of Maryland at College Park. Apart from this, he has written/edited several books including India: The Emerging Giant, which was published in March 2008 by the Oxford University Press, New York.

Panagariya glorious career also includes a stint where he edited the India Policy Forum, a journal modelled on the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and jointly published by the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC and the National Council on Applied Economic Research, New Delhi.

Panagariya is famous for his market-friendly views and has been a firm supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his success as the chief minister of Gujarat. “He [Narendra Modi] restored confidence among the bureaucracy, improved inter-ministerial coordination and greatly speeded up environmental clearances. Red tape was cut for new businesses via the introduction of a single-window facility,” Panagariya had said as per a report by CNN-News 18.

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