Amitabh Kant (born 1 March 1956) is a retired Indian civil servant known for some of the government’s most visible campaigns of the last three decades. A Kerala-cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Service, he was behind the “God’s Own Country” and “Incredible India” tourism campaigns, drove the Make in India and Startup India programmes, was chief executive of the policy body NITI Aayog for six years and was India’s Sherpa during its presidency of the G20 in 2023.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Amitabh Kant |
| Born | 1 March 1956, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Age | 70 |
| Profession | Civil servant (IAS, 1980 batch, Kerala cadre) |
| Offices held | Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (2014–2016); CEO, NITI Aayog (2016–2022); G20 Sherpa (2022–2025) |
| Education | Modern School, Delhi; St. Stephen’s College, Delhi; Jawaharlal Nehru University (M.A.) |
| Known for | Incredible India, Make in India, G20 New Delhi Declaration |
Early Life
Kant was born in Varanasi and brought up in Delhi. He studied at Modern School, read economics at St. Stephen’s College and took a master’s degree at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1980 and was assigned to Kerala.
Career
He began as sub-collector in Thalassery and was later district collector of Kozhikode, where he is remembered for restoring the Mananchira square in the city centre and for helping to expand the Calicut airport with money raised from the public. As managing director of the state fisheries federation he introduced fibreglass boats and outboard motors for traditional fishermen. As Kerala’s tourism secretary in the 1990s he promoted the state under the line “God’s Own Country”, opened its backwaters and Ayurveda to visitors and made it a model for other states.
Moving to the Union Ministry of Tourism as joint secretary in 2001, he launched the “Incredible India” campaign the following year, at a time when travel had slumped after the attacks of September 2001. A companion campaign, “Atithi Devo Bhava”, aimed to improve how visitors were treated. He described the work in his book Branding India: An Incredible Story.
He headed the corporation building the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor and in 2014 became secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, where he ran Make in India, Startup India and the effort to improve India’s position in the World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business ranking. In February 2016 he was appointed chief executive of NITI Aayog. Over an extended tenure he pushed the Aspirational Districts Programme, which ranks the country’s poorest districts on health, education and nutrition, the Atal Innovation Mission, digital payments, electric mobility and production-linked incentives for manufacturing. During the Covid-19 pandemic he chaired a group coordinating with industry and voluntary organisations.
In July 2022 he succeeded Piyush Goyal as India’s Sherpa, the Prime Minister’s chief negotiator, for the G20. At the New Delhi summit in September 2023 his team secured a joint declaration agreed by all members despite deep divisions over the war in Ukraine, and the African Union was admitted as a permanent member. He stepped down in June 2025, ending forty-five years in government, and has since taken up roles on company boards and written about the summit in How India Scaled Mount G20.
Personal Life
He is married to Ranjeeta Kant and has two daughters. He is a keen golfer and a frequent public speaker on manufacturing, urbanisation and clean energy.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Amitabh Kant born?
Amitabh Kant was born on 1 March 1956 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India and is 70 years old.
What is Amitabh Kant known for?
Known for: Incredible India, Make in India, G20 New Delhi Declaration.
Featured image: Amitabh Kant, then CEO of NITI Aayog, speaks at the World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit, Bangkok, April 2017. Photo by World Travel & Tourism Council, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
