Amitabh Kant (born 1 March 1956) was the second chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, a

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. He is a retired member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the central civil service of the Government of India.

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 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

. He was a

Chevening Scholar The Chevening Scholarship is an international scholarship, funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that lets foreign students with leadership qualities study at universities in the United Kingdom. History The Chevening Scholarshi ...

Career

Kant began his

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

career in the

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

cadre, working as sub collector of

Thalassery Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the List of districts of India, districts of Mahé, India, Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode ...

. ''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 Nripendra Misra (born 8March 1945) is a retired 1967 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre who served as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi from 2014 to 2019. He has also served ...

and

Ajit Doval Ajit Kumar Doval KC (born 20 January 1945) is a bureaucrat & spymaster, serving as the fifth and current National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister of India, with the precedence equivalent to Cabinet Minister. He previously served as ...

. Currently, he is an Indian delegate at the

G20 The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigatio ...

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".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kant, Amitabh Living people 1956 births Indian Administrative Service officers Chevening Scholars