Centre appoints ex-CEA Arvind Virmani as full-time member of NITI Aayog

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The government has appointed senior economist and India’s former chief economic advisor Arvind Virmani as a full-time member of NITI Aayog on 16 November.

Important facts

• Virmani, the founder-chairman of the non-profit public policy organisation Foundation for Economic Growth and Welfare, has served as the 13th Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance during the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government during 2007–09.

• P Chidambaram was the finance minister when Virmani served as the chief economic advisor in the finance ministry for two years from 2007-2009.

• He was a member of the Reserve Bank of India's Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary Policy from February 2013 to August 2016.

• In 2009, Virmani was appointed Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, and served there until 2012.

• During his tenure at the IMF in Washington DC, he represented India (as its ambassador to the IMF), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

• Virmani, a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, USA, has also served as Principal Advisor to the Planning Commission.

• NITI Aayog, which is the government’s premier think-tank, is headed by the Prime Minister and presently has three members, V K Saraswat, Ramesh Chand and VK Paul.