Amitabh Kant is presently India’s G20 Sherpa. The G20, or the Group of Twenty, is a forum where policymakers of industrialized and developing economies meet to discuss key issues in the global economy.

Mr Kant is a governance reformer and a public policy change agent for India, having driven key reforms and initiatives during his tenure as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), 2016-22, and the Secretary of the Department for Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), 2014-16, Government of India. He has been a key driver of flagship national initiatives such as Startup India, Make in India, Incredible India, Kerala: God’s Own Country and the Aspirational Districts Program. These initiatives have repositioned India and Kerala and have widely been recognized as transformational.

NITI Aayog is India’s apex policymaking institution, with the Prime Minister as its Chairman. As Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, Mr Kant has driven a vast range of national-level developmental and policy initiatives, which catalyzed India’s social and economic development and have brought about a paradigm shift in policymaking.

As Secretary of DIPP, Mr Kant has driven the Startup India movement, which has led to India emerging as the third-best ecosystem for start-ups globally, with over 70,000 plus start-ups and over 101 plus Unicorns. His focus has been to facilitate Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) through predictability, consistency of policies and elimination of rules, regulations and procedures. This led to India jumping 79 positions in EoDB Indicators. He also initiated competition and ranking among Indian states based on their EoDB indicators. The competition and ranking has led to a transformational impact on states.