New Delhi: Arvind Panagariya, Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission, on Saturday, May 25, voted for the first time at a polling booth here, at the age of 71.
After casting his vote, Arvind Panagariya, who is a Professor at Columbia University said, "In the past, when one turned 21, he or she used to get voting right. When I turned 21, no election was held in that year. Then I went to the United States and whenever I used to visit India, there was no election."
"This time I am in India for a year and a half and the election is happening, so I got a chance to vote. I registered myself as a voter and once it was confirmed, I announced on social media, that I would vote in the elections. I got the opportunity to vote today along with other first-time voters," elaborated Panagariya, who served as the first Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, Government of India in the rank of a Cabinet Minister, from January 2015 to August 2017.
Panagariya, a Padma Bhushan awardee, also said that the election process in India is meticulous as compared to the United States. He has also served as India’s G20 Sherpa and led the Indian teams that negotiated the G20 Communiqués during presidencies of Turkey (2015), China (2016) and Germany (2017).
Panagariya is a former Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and was on the faculty of the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland at College Park from 1978 to 2003. During these years, he also worked with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and UNCTAD in various capacities.
He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Princeton University. He has authored more than fifteen books. His scientific papers have appeared in the top economics journals such as the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies and International Economic Review.
