The government has extended the tenure of NITI Aayog’s Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant by two years. Kant’s current term was to end on June 30.

Kant, a 1980 batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, took charges as the first full-time CEO of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog on February 17, 2016, after his superannuation as Secretary in Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), formerly known as Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

Kant has been a key driver of initiatives like ‘Make in India’, Startup India, ‘Incredible India’ and ‘God’s Own Country’ that established India as leading manufacturing and tourism destinations.

The move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a nod to reconstitute the policy of NITI Aayog, think tank of the government.

On Thursday evening, an official statement spelled out the details of the reconstituted NITI Aayog. While Ramesh Chand, VK Saraswat and VK Paul were retained as full-time members along with Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar, Bibek Debroy’s name was missing from the list.

Kant met Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat recently regarding setting up of a coastal economic zone (CEZ) in the State under the Sagarmala project.