Economist Dr Rajiv Kumar was appointed the new vice-chairman of NITI Aayog on August 5, 2017. He replaced economist Arvind Panagariya, who demitted the office of July 31, 2017. Kumar, a senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research (CPR), is also chancellor of the the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune. Besides, Vinod Paul was appointed as a member of the NITI Aayog. Paul is a paediatrician at AIIMS, and is known to have done substantial work in public health.