Major Govt Reshuffle Aims To Streamline Governance

At a time when the US President has unleashed a global tariff storm, India is negotiating a bilateral trade pact with America and working on free trade agreements with the European Union and few other countries. 

Hence, placing an OSD in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry before incumbent Sunil Barthwal's superannuation in September, is being seen as a good move.

Since the run-up to the presentation of the last budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the two most important officers in the bureaucracy have been shifted from the Finance Ministry and given charge of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

While Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra was appointed RBI Governor, Finance Secretary (designate) Tuhin K Pandey was appointed Chairman of SEBI.

For a long time, there was no full-time Secretary to the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under the Ministry.

Even other ministries and departments of the Government of India did not have regular Secretaries. For instance, till recently, 1992-batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, Arunish Chawala, was holding additional charge of Secretary to various ministries and departments, including the Department of Pharmaceuticals, the Ministry of Culture, the DPE and the DIPAM.

Many officers from the 1990 batch and earlier are set to superannuate in the next 1-2 months. Therefore, there was a pressing need for the government to bring new faces in to meet the many internal and external challenges.   

Hence, on April 18, the government announced sweeping changes of officers at the secretary level, covering all key ministries including Finance, Commerce and Civil Aviation.

In the order issued, the government appointed Arvind Shrivastava as the revenue secretary and Vumlunmang Vualnam as the expenditure secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

Shrivastava, a 1994-batch Karnataka cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was earlier holding the post of additional secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office. Vualnam, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Manipur cadre, was holding the post of the civil aviation secretary.

Besides these two, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) also approved the appointments of Anuradha Thakur, the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA).

She will take over upon Ajay Seth’s superannuation in June. Thakur is a 1994-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre.

It should now be noted that with the new set of fresh minds in the Ministry of Finance, the economic and revenue roadmap of the country will get the required impetus under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Their presence in the Ministry also assumes significance, as they enter the domain amid intense uncertainty worldwide after the US President unleashed a tariff war.

Another appointment in the Ministry of Finance is K Moses Chalai, who has been taken onboard as the Secretary in the DPE. Chalai, a 1990-batch IAS officer of Manipur cadre, is being shifted from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) Inter-State Council Secretariat.

The Ministry of Commerce has also got a new secretary. The 1994-batch IAS officer of Manipur Cadre Rajesh Agarwal, currently additional secretary, has been promoted to the level of Special Secretary.

He will take charge as the Secretary on September 30, after the superannuation of Sunil Barthwal, a 1989-batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.

Another key appointment is that of Santosh Kumar Sarangi, an IAS officer of the 1994-batch of Odisha cadre and the Director General of Foreign Trade.

Sarangi, as the Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, would succeed Nidhi Khare, who was given the additional charge as the Secretary of MNRE in January. Khare is the Secretary to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

As part of this large bureaucratic reshuffle, the government changed the roles of nearly two dozen officers with new assignments.

All these are done to streamline the day-to-day operations in key ministries and governance, which will help the government steer the economy to safety away from today's turbulent waters.