Did not expect Panagariya would quit: NITI Member Bibek Debroy

By Vishav

New Delhi, Aug 2 (IANS) A day after NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya resigned from the post, his colleague Bibek Debroy on Wednesday said while speculations were doing the rounds, he did not know Panagariya was going to quit.

Debroy, one of the three members of the premier think-tank, added that there was a lot of unfinished work at the NITI Aayog and the expectation was that this work would be carried out by Panagariya till 2019.

"Speculation aside, normal expectation is not that it (Panagariya's tenure) suddenly ends on August 31. Therefore, it will take some time to digest. And obviously there would be some readjustments," Debroy told IANS.

Panagariya, an academic on leave from Columbia University, resigned on Tuesday to resume his teaching job at the university.

Debroy said that there has, so far, been no formal communication within the organisation about Panagariya's resignation and that he knew about it only through the media.

"Having said that, speculations have been doing the rounds but until yesterday (Tuesday), I did not know he was going to quit," he said.

(Vishav can be contacted at vishav@ians.in)