Anurag Jain to Take Charge as NITI Aayog CEO on August 17

Anurag Jain, a 1989-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre and the state's outgoing Chief Secretary, will join as Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog on August 17. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved his appointment for an overall period of two years from the date he assumes charge, on terms and conditions similar to those of his predecessor, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam.

NITI Aayog is the Centre's premier policy think tank, coordinating development priorities and cooperative federalism initiatives between Union ministries and state governments, and its CEO functions as the institution's top executive officer working under the Prime Minister, who chairs the Aayog. Jain's appointment places a Madhya Pradesh cadre officer with deep experience of both state and central administration at the head of an institution whose CEO post has traditionally rotated among senior IAS officers nearing the end of their career.

Jain, born on August 11, 1965, in Gwalior, completed his B.Tech with honours in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1986 before joining the IAS in 1989, and later earned a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in the United States. He began his administrative career as Assistant Collector in Sagar in June 1990 and has since held senior assignments in both the Madhya Pradesh government and the Government of India, most recently serving as Secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways before returning to his home cadre.

Jain was appointed the 35th Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh in October 2024, succeeding Veera Rana, and received two service extensions in that role before his appointment to NITI Aayog was announced. His three decades of administrative experience span governance, infrastructure, finance and industrial development portfolios at both the state and central levels, a breadth of exposure officials say factored into his selection for the Aayog post.

His move to NITI Aayog follows a series of leadership changes at the institution earlier in 2026. In April, economist Ashok Kumar Lahiri was appointed Vice Chairperson, replacing Suman K. Bery, and the Centre separately named Rajiv Gauba, along with academics including Professor K.V. Raju and Dr M. Srinivas, as full-time members, reconstituting much of the Aayog's senior leadership within the same year.

As CEO, Jain will be responsible for coordinating between Union ministries, state governments and other government bodies on implementation of national development priorities, a role that requires regular engagement with state chief secretaries — a function his own recent experience as Madhya Pradesh's Chief Secretary is expected to inform directly. Jain is also known within the service as an avid tennis player who has won 11 national-level awards and has represented Madhya Pradesh in cricket.

Jain's appointment order specifies that his tenure will run for two years from the date he takes charge, or until further orders, whichever comes earlier, mirroring the terms under which his predecessor served at NITI Aayog.

Jain's appointment follows the extension of his Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary tenure to August 31, 2026, which had already positioned him as one of the more prominent names discussed for the NITI Aayog post in bureaucratic circles in the weeks before the ACC order was issued. His shift from heading a large state administration to a central policy coordination role is expected to draw on his experience managing Madhya Pradesh's engagement with centrally sponsored schemes, an area of direct relevance to NITI Aayog's mandate of coordinating development priorities between the Centre and the states.