Arvind Panagariya resigned as vice-chairman, NITI Aayog, on Tuesday, nearly two-and-a-half years after he assumed office in the body, which was formed just before his joining.

Panagariya will return in September as faculty to Columbia University, from where he had taken leave to take up his current job. He is the second high-profile academic-economist, after former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan, to leave a top job in India to return to the teaching profession in the US. “I have asked the Prime Minister to relinquish me of my job as my leave ends on August ...