Amitabh Kant
Amitabh Kant (born 1 March 1956) is the second and current chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, a public policy think tank of the Government of India. He is a 1980 batch retired IAS officer of Kerala cadre. Early life. Amitabh Kant was born on 1 March 1956. He first studied at Modern School, Delhi, graduated with a degree in Economics (Hons.) from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and earned an M.A. in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is a Chevening Scholar. Career. Amitabh Kant is the CEO of NITI Aayog. He is a member of  the Indian Administrative Service, IAS (Kerala Cadre: 1980 batch). He is the author of "Branding India – An Incredible Story", "The Path Ahead: Transformative Ideas for India", and "Incredible India 2.0- Synergies for Growth and Governance". India Today, in its 45th Anniversary special issue, featured Kant as one of the 45 celebrated Indians. Kant was listed as one of the world's 50 most influential people revolutionizing governance by Apolitical, a global government learning platform. Kant has also been Chairman of the Empowered Committee on the transformation of Aspirational Districts Programme of the Government of India, which was launched by the  Prime Minister of India in 2018. In addition to his current role as the CEO of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant serves as a Director in the board of the National Highways Authority of India, Member of the Digital Communications Commission of India, Director of the Board of the India International Convention Centre, member of the National Statistical Commission of India, Member of the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) and the Chairman of the Executive Council of the National Institute of Labour Economics, Research and Development. In the past, Amitabh Kant has worked as Secretary, Department of Industrial  Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Chairman & CEO, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corporation, CMD – ITDC, Joint Secretary – Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, Secretary – Tourism, Government of Kerala, Managing Director, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, District Collector, Kozikhode and Managing Director, Matsyafed. In Kerala, he also served as the Sub Collector of Telicherry, Commissioner of Rural Development and as Principal Secretary and Special Commissioner (Industries). During his tenure in Kerala he structured the Calicut Airport as a private sector project based on User’s Free and developed the BSES Power Project and Mattanchery Bridge under Private Public Partnership. He was also responsible for introducing  new technology (fiberglass crafts and outboard motor) in the fisheries sector and launching beach level auctions which substantially enhanced returns to traditional fishermen. He began his IAS career working as sub collector of Thalassery. Kant is also involved in various initiatives of the World Economic Forum. He is on the Global Advisory Board, Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network. He is a Steering Committee Member of the EDISON Alliance which is focused on bridging the digital divide. He is also on the Board of Stewards, Advanced Manufacturing and Production and is Member of the Regional Action Group on South  Asia. He served as Chair of the Regional Strategy Group India from 2017 to 2020. Kant has received a number of recognitions for his work in the field of governance. He received the Economic Times Policy Change Agent of the Year Award, the Bloomberg TV Personality of the year Award, the NDTV Administrator of the year Award and the Distinguished Fellowship of the Institute of Directors. He is the recipient of One Globe Award-2016 for leadership in Transforming Governance for the 21st Century. He is also the recipient of Sir Edmund Hillary Fellowship awarded by the Prime Minister of New  Zealand. He is a Member of the Steering Board of “Shaping the Future of Production Systems” of World Economic Forum. He is also the recipient of Golden Peacock Award for Leadership in Economic Transformation-2017. In April 2018, speaking at an event at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia, Kant said that eastern Indian states are mainly responsible for India’s poor show in HDI. He particularly pointed out Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan and stated that the BIMARU states of the past continue to pull India backward on social indicators. He also said that India mainly lags behind  in education and health and emphasized that India needs to focus on social indicators to improve country’s HDI. In 2019, Kant said that Madhya Pradesh needs to work on Human Development Index to get rid of the 'BIMARU' tag in ten years. In December 2020, Kant reportedly attracted controversy after he remarked at a public event that "tough reforms" were "very difficult in the Indian context" as "we are too much of a democracy". The remarks were made at an event hosted by Swarajya magazine, and sponsored by Indian mining company, Vedanta. The comments were widely reported by several  news outlets, including the Press Trust of India, "Hindustan Times", "Indian Express", "Firstpost", and "India Today", and a video of the speech was hosted online by Swarajya magazine. Kant later denied making the remarks, and "Hindustan Times" withdrew their report on the comments. Independent fact checking website Alt News confirmed that the original news reports had quoted him verbatim and that it was unclear why several publications had removed their stories or changed their headlines. Kant later disputed these reports, claiming that his comments had been misconstrued. "What I said and what has been ascribed to me are poles apart . My statement, with relevant portions, is that India is too much of a democracy to mirror a China model. How this has been misconstrued to mean we have 'too much democracy' is both myopic and idiosyncratic. Let me reiterate — there is nothing ambiguous about what I said. The entire conversation is available in the public domain" "India Today's" High & Mighty rankings of 2019 featured Kant as one of the most powerful people in India under the category of "The Supercrats - India's Top Bureaucrats" along with other bureaucrats such as Nripendra Misra and Ajit Doval. He has been engaged  by Sansad TV (a merged Global TV Channel of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV) as a Guest Anchor along with some other senior celebrated experts from diverse fields such as Dr Karan Singh, Bibek Debroy, Shashi Tharoor, Hemant Batra, Maroof Raza and Sanjeev Sanyal to present some flagship programmes.