On Friday, Parameswaran Iyer, the former Secretary of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, was appointed as the new CEO of Niti Aayog. The government order announced Iyer as the successor to Amitabh Kant, who is set to retire on June 30 after serving as the CEO since 2016. Iyer, renowned for his role in the Swachh Bharat Mission, will assume the position for a two-year term.
Amitabh Kant’s six-year tenure will come to an end, with his term extended by a year in June 2021. Meanwhile, Parameswaran Iyer, a 1981-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, aged 63, is a distinguished sanitation specialist. After 17 years of service as an IAS officer, he resigned in 2009 but returned as the Secretary of the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DoDWS) in 2016.
Born in Srinagar to an Indian Air Force officer, Iyer studied at St. Stephen’s College and represented India at the Junior Davis Cup. He played a crucial role in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a campaign aiming to eliminate open defecation by constructing over 90 million toilets in rural India. Iyer resigned from his post as the Secretary of DoDWS in July 2020 and subsequently worked with the World Bank in the United States.
Iyer has a wealth of experience, having served as a Senior Rural Water Sanitation Specialist at the United Nations from April 1998 to February 2006. He also contributed to the field of education during his tenure with the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh.