Former Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Wednesday took over as a full-time member of Niti Aayog. The government created a slot to make Gauba,a retired 1982-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre, the fifth full-time member of the NITI Aayog.
As of now, four full-time members of the Aayog are — Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Ramesh Chand, Vinod Kumar Paul and Arvind Virmani.
“In continuation of Cabinet Secretariat’s notification No. 511/1/1/2024-Cab. dated 16.07.2024, the Prime Minister has approved the appointment of Shri Rajiv Gauba, IAS (JH:1982) Retd. as full-time member, NITI Aayog with immediate effect and until further orders, on the same terms and conditions as are applicable to full-time members of NITI Aayog,” the notification said.
He brings rich experience as the full-time member of the Central government’s apex institution for strategic planning and policy advocacy, having served for the longest period of five years as the Cabinet Secretary, from 2019 till August 2024, surpassing his predecessor Pradeep Kumar Sinha’s stint of four years and 79 days.
He was instrumental in some of the key bureaucratic and governance reforms which the Modi government initiated and for the execution of one of the closely guarded historic legislation of Jammu and Kashmir — Reorganisation Act, 2019 which was conceived when he was Union Home Secretary.
Before that, he had also served as Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development but as a young IAS officer he came on a deputation to the Centre from Jharkhand to become a Director in the Ministry of Environment.
His profile also illustrates that Guaba was appointed as Private Secretary to former Defence Minister George Fernandes at a time when India fought Kargil War with Pakistan.
In the State, he has served in different capacities the tribal district of Dumka, besides other places such as Nalanda, Muzaffarpur and Gaya. He eventually rose to become Chief Secretary of Jharkhand.