Amitabh Kant

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Amitabh Kant
Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog (33897600400).jpg
Amitabh Kant at the WTTC Global Summit 2017
Indian emissary to G20
Incumbent
Assumed office
8 July 2022
Occupation Civil servant
Website Official website OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Amitabh Kant (born 1 March 1956) is presently India's G20 Sherpa. [1] He is an Indian bureaucrat and the former chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, [2] a public policy think tank of the Government of India. He is a retired member of the 1980 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) batch, the central civil service of the Government of India. [3]

Contents

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 [4] and earned an M.A. in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University. [5] He was a Chevening Scholar. [6]

Career

Kant began his Indian Administrative Service career in the Kerala cadre, working as sub collector of Thalassery., [7] where he carried out infrastructural work such as widening roads, removing encroachments, relocating the town's fish market from the town-centre to the beach area, and initiating the Tellicherry Carnival for communal harmony. [8]

After his tenure in Tellicherry, Kant was appointed as the Managing Director of the Kerala State Co-operative Federation for Fisheries Development Ltd [9] ., known as 'Matsyafed.' In this role, he is credited with introducing fibreglass boats and outboard motor technology in the fisheries sector, as well as launching beach-level auctions. [10]

As District Collector of Kozhikode (Calicut), he played a pivotal role in the expansion of the Calicut airport. [11] His efforts included revamping the Mananchira Maidan, [12] reconstructing the building of the Kozhikode Public Library and Research Centre, [13] and organising the 'Malabar Mahotsav' cultural festival. . [14]

As Tourism Secretary in Kerala, Kant promoted the state as a tourist destination, [15] and is credited with popularising the slogan “Kerala: God's Own Country” during his tenure. [16]

After his term in Kerala, Kant was appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism in 2001, where he stayed till 2007. [17] During this time, he conceived the 'Incredible India' campaign through Ogilvy and Mather, intending to transform India into a sought-after tourist destination. [18] He also conceptualised and executed the ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’(Guest is God) campaign to train taxi drivers, tourist guides, and immigration officials. [19]

Later, as the Secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Kant drove initiatives such as "Make in India," "Start Up India," and "Ease of Doing Business." [20]

Kant was CEO of NITI Aayog from 2016 to 2022. [21] During his tenure, he chaired Empowered Group 3 for COVID-19 management and initiated national-level projects like Asset Monetization and National Mission for Transformative Mobility. Additionally, he advocated for natural farming methods. [22] In this role, he drove India’s Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), aimed at improving the socio-economic indicators of 112 of India's most backward districts. [23]

Presently, he is India's G20 Sherpa to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. [24]

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". [25]

Publications

Kant is the author of books Branding India-An Incredible Story, Incredible India 2.0, Made in India: 75 Years of Business and Enterprise, and The Elephant Moves: India's New Place in the World co-authored with Amit Kapoor. He is also the editor of The Path Ahead- Transformative Ideas for India, and has written over 500 articles in leading Indian and foreign publications.

Honours

Controversies

In December 2020, Kant attracted controversy after remarking at a public event, organized by Swarajya magazine, that enacting "tough reforms" were hard in India, since it is "too much of a democracy". [27] [28] [29] [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thalassery</span> City in Kerala, India

Thalassery, formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality and commercial city on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahe, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karnataka). Thalassery municipality has a population of just under 100,000 as of 2011 census. Thalassery Heritage City has an area of 23.98 square kilometres (9.26 sq mi). Thalassery has an altitude ranging from 2.5 to 30 metres above mean sea-level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Gundert</span> German missionary, scholar, and linguist

Hermann Gundert was a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Gundert is chiefly known for his contributions as an Indologist, and compiled a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1859), in which he developed and constricted the grammar spoken by the Malayalis, nowadays; a Malayalam-English dictionary (1872), and contributed to work on Bible translations into Malayalam. He worked primarily at Tellicherry on the Malabar coast, in present day Kerala, India. Gundert also contributed to the fields of history, geography and astronomy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kozhikode district</span> District of Kerala state, India

Kozhikode, is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, along its southwestern Malabar Coast. The city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, is the district headquarters. The district is 67.15% urbanised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederation of Indian Industry</span> Industry association in India

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group headquartered in New Delhi, India, founded in 1895.

<i>Chandrika</i> (newspaper) Indian newspaper founded in the 1932

Chandrika is an Indian daily newspaper in Malayalam language published from Kozhikode, Kerala. The newspaper currently serves as the mouthpiece of Indian Union Muslim League party in Kerala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mananchira</span>

mananchira square is a man-made freshwater pond park situated in the centre of the city of Kozhikode (Calicut) in Kerala, southern India. The pond is 3.49 acres in area, is rectangular in shape and is fed by a natural spring. It was donated by KunhiKoru Moopan, father of Kallingal Madathil Rarichan Moopan to the people of calicut for sports and leisure activity

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arvind Panagariya</span> Indian-American economist

Arvind Panagariya is an Indian economist who is holding the position of Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University and the Director of Deepak and Neera Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York City. He served as first vice-chairman of the government of India think-tank NITI Aayog between January 2015 and August 2017. He has been appointed as the chairman of 16th Finance Commission by the government of India. He is a former Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2012 for his contributions in the field of economics and Public Policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amitabh Rajan</span>

Amitabh Rajan is an Indian Administrative Service officer of Maharashtra cadre and the former Home Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary of Maharashtra. He headed the Reserve Bank of India Services Board as its Chairman from 2018-2022, and was also an Independent Director in the Board of the State Trading Corporation of India. He has made significant contributions to the fields of Sociology, Economics, and Jurisprudence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NITI Aayog</span> Indian government think tank

The NITI Aayog serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of the Republic of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and fostering cooperative federalism and moving away from bargaining federalism through the involvement of State Governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach. Its initiatives include "15-year road map", "7-year vision, strategy, and action plan", AMRUT, Digital India, Atal Innovation Mission, Medical Education Reform, agriculture reforms, Indices Measuring States’ Performance in Health, Education and Water Management, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Rationalization of Centrally Sponsored Schemes, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Skill Development, Task Forces on Agriculture and up of Poverty, and Transforming India Lecture Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Vijayan ministry</span> Overview of 14th ministry of Kerala

First Pinarayi Vijayan ministry is the Council of Ministers headed by Pinarayi Vijayan that was formed after the Left Democratic Front (LDF) won the 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly elections. The Council assumed office on 25 May 2016. The ministry had a total of 19 ministers in the Cabinet at the time of swearing-in compared to 21 ministers in the previous government. Pinarayi Vijayan sworn in as 22nd Chief Minister of Kerala, 12th person to hold this position. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on 3 May 2021 submitted the resignation of the Council of Ministers headed by him to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan after winning a historic victory in the 15th legislative assembly elections by winning 99 of the 140 seats in the Assembly.

Kanth, also spelt Kant, is an Indian surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Magnetic Maharashtra is a summit held in Maharashtra, India, aimed to attract investment into the economy of Maharashtra.

The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is a unified access portal which brings together women from different regions of India, across economies to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations. The idea of the Platform was first mooted by Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog who announced the setting-up of a Women Entrepreneurship Platform in NITI Aayog at the conclusion of the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held in Hyderabad in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nipah virus outbreaks in Kerala</span> Nipah virus outbreaks occurring in India

There have been several outbreaks of Nipah virus in Kerala, some of which have been traced to fruit bats. The NIV Pune confirmed the first case of Nipah virus in Kerala in May 2018. A total of 21 Nipah virus infected individuals died between 2018 and 2024.

Suman Bery is an Indian economist, academic, and writer who is the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog. After serving at the World Bank for 28 years, Bery served as the Chief Economist of Oil and Gas supermajor Royal Dutch Shell, based in The Hague, Netherlands. He is a Global Fellow in the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC and a Non-resident Fellow of Brussels based think tank Bruegel. He was the former director general of National Council of Applied Economic Research and the former Indian country director of International Growth Centre.

B. V. R. Subramaniyam is a retired 1988-batch Chhattisgarh cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. He has been Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Chief Secretary-Jammu & Kashmir, Principal Secretary-Government of Chhattisgarh, and has held positions in the Prime Minister’s Office. He has previously served in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under both Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi. He has been instrumental in containing insurgency in Chhattisgarh in the 2010s. In February 2023, he has taken charge as 4th CEO of NITI Aayog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parameswaran Iyer</span> Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer of 1981 batch

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References

  1. ↑ Sharma, Harikishan (10 September 2023). "The face behind India's G20 prep: Sherpa Amitabh Kant". The Indian Express. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  2. ↑ "India's startup movement is fast gaining momentum: Amitabh Kant". The Economic Times. 15 August 2017. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  3. ↑ "NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's tenure extended by one year". The Hindu. 2021-06-29. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  4. ↑ "Did you know these 6 top office holders in India went to the same college?". India Today. 17 December 2018.
  5. ↑ "Tourism Tales with Amitabh Kant". www.braingainmag.com. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  6. ↑ "Chief Executive Officer".
  7. ↑ "Reviving Nostalgic Memories: DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant's journey to Tellicherry, his first posting" . Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  8. ↑ Bansal, Rashmi (20 May 2019). Shine Bright. Westland. p. 292. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  9. ↑ Special, Correspondent. "With another extension as Niti Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant remains influential policymaker". 30 June 2021. The Hindu. Retrieved 23 April 2024.{{cite news}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
  10. ↑ "Cover Story" (PDF). bindugopalrao. Hotelier India Awards 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  11. ↑ Jacob, Rahul (16 Jan 2016). "Lunch with BS: Amitabh Kant". Business Standard. Business Standard. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  12. ↑ I, Sreenath (3 June 2017). "How Mananchira became the pride of Kozhikode residents". OnManorama. Malayala Manorama. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  13. ↑ Staff Reporter (31 May 2017). "Library Council takes over Mananchira public library". The Hindu. The Hindu. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  14. ↑ Bansal, Rashmi (20 May 2019). Shine Bright. Westland. p. 292. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  15. ↑ "The Kerala tourism secretary job was seen as a lousy posting: Amitabh Kant" . Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  16. ↑ Sharma, Harikishan (10 September 2023). "The face behind India's G20 prep: Sherpa Amitabh Kant". The Indian Express. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  17. ↑ "The making of an incredible story". India Today. India Today Group. 21 June 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  18. ↑ "How a punishment posting for Amitabh Kant gave birth to Incredible India campaign". exchange4media. exchange4media. 6 September 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  19. ↑ "Amitabh Kant gets two-year extension as Niti Aayog CEO". Times of India. Times of India. 26 June 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  20. ↑ Mathur, Nandita (15 February 2016). "Amitabh Kant: The intention is to make India a hub of manufacturing". The Mint. The Mint. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  21. ↑ "Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant gets another extension, till June 2022". The Economic Times. The Economic Times. 29 June 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  22. ↑ Unknown, Surabi (17 March 2024). "A man for all seasons: Here's what makes Amitabh Kant one of India's finest policymakers". Money Control. Money Control. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  23. ↑ Chatterji, Saubhadra (12 June 2021). "UN arm's report praises govt over Aspirational Districts programme". Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  24. ↑ "Amitabh Kant set to be India's G20 sherpa". Hindustan Times. 2022-07-08. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  25. ↑ "The most powerful people of India 2019 - Full list". India Today. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  26. ↑ "令和５年秋の外国人叙勲 受章者名簿" (PDF). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  27. ↑ "'Tough Reforms Difficult in India, We Are Too Much of a Democracy,' Says Niti Aayog CEO". The Wire. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  28. ↑ "Why Niti Aayog CEO's statement is a warning to the people". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  29. ↑ "Niti Aayog's Kant denies saying India is 'too much of a democracy', Twitter users share event clip". Scroll.in. 8 December 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
  30. ↑ "Hindustan Times withdraws report on Niti Aayog CEO's 'too much democracy' comment". Newslaundry. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
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