Parameswaran Iyer, credited for Swachh Bharat plan, is new NITI Aayog CEO

He will have a tenure of two years; incumbent Amitabh Kant's term ends on June 30.

Parameswaran Iyer, a retired civil servant who led the Swachh Bharat cleanliness mission, is the new CEO of NITI Aayog, said the government on Friday. Iyer’s tenure will last two years.

Incumbent CEO Amitabh Kant's tenure ends on June 30. The personnel ministry order said Iyer's appointment is on the same terms and applicable for Kant.

Iyer, in July 2020, resigned as secretary in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation citing personal reasons. Iyer, a 1981-batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS, is best known for spearheading Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Swachch Bharat Mission.

After taking voluntary retirement from the IAS in 2009, Iyer had a stint with the World Bank as water and sanitation specialist. Before he opted for retirement, Iyer had also worked with the Mayawati government in UP in the field of education.

It was during his term at the World Bank’s Hanoi office in Vietnam as programme leader and sanitation specialist in 2016 that he was approached by the Indian government to take charge as the top gun at the drinking and sanitation department.