Garg will continue as Secretary in charge of the Statistics Ministry till his superannuation on July 31, 2024 and after that, will be re-employed in that job for one more year.

He will also discharge the functions of Secretary to the National Statistical Commission, a nodal agency that collects statistics and data about the country’s economy and other sectors.

A 1991 batch IAS officer from the Odisha cadre, Garg is an interesting choice as the Secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation where normally a technocrat or a statistician is appointed to serve.

Garg has however studied economics at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University besides being an alumni of the country’s top management - Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA).

He has also served as joint secretary in the department of expenditure and department of economic affairs in the Ministry of Finance in the Government of India.

According to insiders, he was probably the only IAS officer to have opposed the demonetisation scheme in 2016 on file notings.

After that, he was repatriated to his parent cadre in Odisha where he worked on the successful KALIA scheme which supports rural communities. The KALIA scheme supports small farmers, sharecroppers, fishery workers, animal herders, who were earlier not covered by bank lending schemes, and were often at the mercy of local moneylenders.

Many believe that the central government’s flagship PM Kisan Nidhi Samman Yojana is based on Odisha’s Kalia scheme designed by Garg.