Arvind Panagariya, NITI Aayog vice chairman, may be appointed the next Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief, two television channels CNBC Awaaz and ABP News reported on Monday. The channels cited government sources who did not want to be named. A formal announcement could be made in the next 48 hours, said Channels' sources. PMO declined to comment, but said a decision on the new RBI governor may be made before July 18. Panagariya is India's Group of 20 summit negotiator. Prior to being appointed as Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog, he was a Professor of Economics and the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Panagariya holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University. In the past, he has been the Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank. Professor Panagariya has authored more than a fifteen books. Professor Panagariya's scientific papers have appeared in the top economics journals such as the American Economic Review and the Quarterly Journal of Economics while his policy papers have appeared in Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. He was recently honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the President of India.