Amitabh Kant
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Amitabh Kant
India's G20 Sherpa
former CEO, NITI Aayog

Amitabh Kant is presently India’s G20 Sherpa. The G20 or the Group of Twenty is a forum where policymakers of industrialized and developing economies meet to discuss key issues in the global economy. The G20 countries account for 85% of global GDP, 75% of world trade and about two-thirds of the world’s population.

Amitabh Kant is a governance reformer and a public policy change agent for India, having driven key reforms and initiatives during his tenure as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) (2016-2022) and the Secretary of the Department for Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) (2014-2016), Government of India. He has been a key driver of flagship national initiatives such as Startup India, Make in India, Incredible India, Kerala: God’s Own Country and the Aspirational Districts Program. These initiatives have repositioned India and Kerala and have widely been recognized as transformational.

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) is India’s apex policy-making institution, with the Prime Minister as its Chairman. As CEO of NITI Aayog, Kant has driven a vast range of national-level developmental and policy initiatives which catalyzed India’s social and economic development and have brought about a paradigm shift in policy-making.

As Secretary, DIPP Kant has driven the Start-up India movement which has led to India emerging as the third-best ecosystem for startups globally, with over 70,000+ start ups and over 101+ Unicorns. His focus has been to facilitate Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) through predictability, consistency of policies and elimination of rules, regulations and procedures. This led to India jumping 79 positions in Ease of Doing Business Indicators. He also initiated competition and ranking amongst Indian states based on their EoDB indicators. The competition and ranking has led to a transformational impact on States.

He has been the driver of the world’s first government-led subnational SDG Index -the SDG India Index was launched in 2018. Since its inception, and now in its fourth year, it has become the country’s principal tool for monitoring progress on the SDGs for States and Union Territories. During his tenure, India’s first-ever National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was launched which provides poverty estimates for states and districts of the country.

Under his supervision, NITI Aayog produced a number of indices and ranked various Indian states on their performances. These indices include the School Education and Quality Index (SEQI), the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the Health Index, Composite Water Management Index besides others.

He set up the Behavioral Insights Unit (BIU) of India and was instrumental in the launch of the Lifestyle For Environment (LiFE) movement, conceptualized by the Prime Minister, which places individual behavior at the heart of climate action.

He has also taken numerous other initiatives during his tenure at NITI including Online Dispute Resolution, Easing Compliance Burden and Decriminalisation of existing laws.

He is especially passionate about the sunrise sectors of growth, particularly Mobile Manufacturing, Green Hydrogen, Advanced Chemistry Cell Batteries, electric mobility and battery swapping and has steered several initiatives in these sectors for the purposes of climate adaptation and mitigation.

As the CEO of NITI Aayog, he served as Director in the Board of the National Highways Authority of India, Member of India’s National Statistical Commission, Member of the Digital Communications Commission of India, Director of the Board of the India International Convention Centre, 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.

Amitabh Kant did his schooling from Modern School, Delhi, graduation in Economics (Hons) from St. Stephens, Delhi University and MA from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is a Chevening Scholar.

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