In a first major revamp of the NITI Aayog since its inception in 2015, the Centre has appointed economist Ashok Lahiri as its new vice-chairman and replaced four of its five full-time members. Lahiri will replace Suman Bery, who had been serving on the post since April 2022.Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chairperson of the NITI Aayog.Lahiri, a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission who has held roles with global financial institutions, is one of the BJP’s more recognisable Bengali leaders. An alumnus of the Delhi School of Economics and Presidency University, Lahiri has also worked with the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the IMF. He is the outgoing BJP MLA from Balurghat and is not contesting the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal.Apart from him, Bhopal IISER Director Gobardhan Das has been inducted as a full-time member of the government think tank. Das, who also hails from Bengal, is an immunologist. He had unsuccessfully contested from the Purbasthali Uttar constituency in 2021as a BJP candidate.The two appointments come amid elections in West Bengal, with the second round of voting due on April 29.Abhay Karandikar, Secretary in the Department of Science and Technology; Dr M Srinivas, Director, Delhi AIIMS; and KV Raju, member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, were the three other full-time members who had been appointed, said a government notification.Former Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, who was appointed last year, is the only full-time existing member of the Aayog who has been retained.The four new faces have replaced VK Saraswat, Ramesh Chand, VK Paul and Arvind Virmani.Saraswat, a former Director General, DRDO, was the first full-time member of the NITI Aayog when it came into existence in January 2015. His appointment was followed later that year by Ramesh Chand, an agriculture scientist. VK Paul, an eminent paediatrician, had joined as a full-time member in June 2019. Virmani, a former Chief Economic Adviser to the government, was appointed in 2022.On February 24 this year, Nidhi Chhibber, Director General of the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, which functions from within the Aayog, was given additional charge of Chief Executive Officer of the think tank following the completion of BVR Subrahmanyam’s tenure.PM Modi on Saturday met Lahiri shortly after he was named the new Vice-Chairman. The PM also congratulated the other newly appointed full-time members of the think tank in a post on X.