The government on Tuesday reconstituted the NITI Aayog, increasing the number of special invitees from five to 11, including five ministers from the BJP’s allies — H D Kumaraswamy (JD-S), Jitan Ram Manjhi (HAM), Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JD-U), K R Naidu (TDP) and Chirag Paswan (LJP-Ram Vilas). Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the Chairperson and economist Suman K Bery will continue to be the Vice Chairperson of NITI Aayog, according to the notification. Scientist V K Saraswat, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, paediatrician V K Paul and macro-economist Arvind Virmani will also continue to be full-time members of the government think-tank. BVR Subrahmanyam will also remain the CEO. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has replaced his predecessor Narendra Singh Tomar as an ex-officio member. The other ex-officio members include Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Among the other special invitees are Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways), J P Nadda (Health), Virendra Kumar (Social Justice and Empowerment), Jual Oram (Tribal Affairs), Annapurna Devi (Women and Child Development) and Rao Inderjit Singh (Statistics and Programme Implementation). Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Ashwini Vaishnaw, who were special invitees earlier, are not on the list this time. Gadkari, Virendra Kumar and Rao Inderjit Singh were special invitees earlier too. Among the allies who have been included, Kumaraswamy has the Heavy Industries and Steel portfolio, Manjhi has Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh has Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Naidu has Civil Aviation, and Chirag Paswan has Food Processing Industries.
