politics · 2026-07-23
Anurag Jain Takes Charge as NITI Aayog CEO
Govt appoints Anurag Jain, 1989-batch IAS officer and former DPIIT and road transport secretary, as NITI Aayog CEO for two yearsHe led PM Gati Shakti, PLI schemes, and Jan Dhan Yojana, giving him direct experience in govt's top economic prioritiesState govts, infrastructure ministries, and industrial policy teams will work most closely with him
What did Jain actually run before this?
Jain served as secretary at DPIIT from Sep 2021 to Apr 2023, where he oversaw PLI schemes, Startup India, and FDI policy. He then moved to MoRTH, handling national highways expansion. Most recently, he was Madhya Pradesh chief secretary.
What is PM Gati Shakti exactly?
PM Gati Shakti is a national master plan launched in Oct 2021 to break silos between 16 infrastructure ministries. It uses a GIS-based digital platform to map existing and planned projects, preventing conflicting investments like roads and water lines being built separately in the same corridor.
How did the GIS platform actually work?
The platform layers satellite imagery with real-time project data, letting ministries see who else is building nearby before finalizing designs. Jain's team at DPIIT built this system, which won the PM's Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2023 for cutting project approval delays.
What award did it win and why?
The award recognized Gati Shakti for reducing infrastructure project delays by forcing coordination upfront. Previously, a road ministry might lay asphalt only for the water ministry to dig it up months later. The platform made such conflicts visible before ground was broken.
Why does his DPIIT and road ministry background?
His DPIIT stint gave him direct control of industrial incentives that now cover ~14 sectors, while his road ministry role put him at the center of the $1.2Tn infrastructure pipeline. This dual experience means he can align industrial policy with physical connectivity in ways few bureaucrats can.
Why was Jan Dhan Yojana his breakthrough?
Jain conceived Jan Dhan Yojana as joint secretary in the department of financial services before its 2014 launch. The scheme opened ~500Mn bank accounts for unbanked Indians, making it the world's largest financial inclusion program.
How many accounts did it actually open?
By Jan 2025, the program had ~550Mn active accounts with total deposits exceeding ₹2.5L Cr. The scale mattered because it created the plumbing for later schemes, direct benefit transfers, and digital payments that now move ~₹7L Cr annually.
What made it different from earlier inclusion?
Earlier inclusion efforts relied on bank branches reaching villages, which failed because branches were unprofitable in remote areas. Jain's design used business correspondents, mobile banking, and zero-balance accounts to remove cost barriers, then linked accounts to Aadhaar for identity verification.
Which current schemes could he reshape first?
State govts running PM Gati Shakti projects and industries awaiting PLI disbursements are most immediately affected. Jain's previous role designing the Gati Shakti digital platform means he knows exactly where inter-ministry coordination bottlenecks sit.
Which PLI sectors did he personally oversee?
Jain oversaw PLI schemes while at DPIIT from September 2021 to April 2023, along with the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, a GIS-based digital platform for integrating infrastructure planning across ministries.
How much was actually disbursed under his watch?
Electronics PLI, particularly mobile phone manufacturing, saw the fastest traction. By Mar 2023, Apple suppliers Foxconn and Wistron had begun shifting assembly to India, though actual disbursements during Jain's tenure remained modest as companies were still meeting investment thresholds.
What bottleneck plagued PLI approvals then?
The core bottleneck was proving incremental sales over a baseline year, which required audited financials that many applicants struggled to produce quickly. Jain's team had to verify claims against historical data, causing delays even as political pressure mounted to show early manufacturing wins.
Source: livemint.com