Atanu Chakraborty appointed Economic Affairs Secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg named Power Secretary

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed Atanu Chakraborty as the Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs. Chakraborty, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, was earlier posted as the Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under Ministry of Finance. Anil Kumar Khachi, a 1986 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, will replace Chakraborty as the DIPAM Secretary.

Chakraborty will succeed Subhash Chandra Garg as the Economic Affairs Secretary. In the recent list of appointments, Garg has been named Secretary, Ministry of Power. He will replace Ajay Kumar Bhalla.

Garg, a 1983 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, was appointed as the Economic Affairs Secretary in June 2017. He had assumed charge on July 12, 2017.

Bhalla, on the other hand, has been appointed Officer on Special Duty in the Home Ministry. He will take over as the new Union Home Secretary succeeding Rajiv Gauba when he retires on August 31. Even though the appointment order by the ACC did not mention that Bhalla will be the next home secretary, according to convention, an OSD is appointed for smooth transition of the duties from the incumbent.

According to an official order, Bhalla, a 1984 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, will join the MHA with immediate effect and continue to function as OSD till Gauba retires for smooth transition of the charges. He will have a fixed two-year tenure as Union Home Secretary till August 2021.

Anuradha Mitra, Member (Finance), Digital Communications Commission, has been appointed Secretary, Department of Official Language.

The ACC has also appointed Anshu Prakash, a 1986-batch IAS officer from UT cadre, as the Telecom Secretary. RS Shukla, another 1986-batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, has been named the Secretary of Parliamentary Affairs, the ACC order said.

Ravi Capoor, from Assam Meghalaya cadre, has been appointed Secretary, Textiles, whereas Atul Chaturvedi from same cadre has been named the Secretary, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

Furthermore, Gujarat cadre officer P D Vaghela was appointed the Secretary in Department of Pharmaceuticals. G V Venugopala Sarma, IAS from Odisha cadre, was appointed Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority in the rank and pay of Secretary by temporarily upgrading the post.

His batch mate from Gujarat, Guruprasad Mohapatra was appointed Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. Mohapatra is the Chairman, Airports Authority of India in the Civil Aviation Ministry.

The ACC further approved in-situ upgradation of 12 1986 batch IAS officers to the level of Special Secretary in the rank and pay of Secretary, as a measure personal to them, by temporarily upgrading the post held by them, the panel's order said.

Those 1986-batch IAS promoted as special secretaries include Anil Kumar Jain in the Environment Ministry, Subash Chandra in the Department of Defence, Sanjeev Nandan Sahai in the Power Ministry, Shambhu Singh in the Roads and Transport Ministry, Ravi Mittal in the Department of Financial Services, Pramod Kumar Das in the Department of Expenditure and Sanjeeva Kumar in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it said.

IAS from MP cadre S P Singh Parihar, Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board was given the rank and pay of Secretary, it said.

Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Jammu Kashmir cadre IAS officer, was appointed Secretary, Union Public Service Commission, it said. Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi from Bihar cadre will be new Director General in the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the rank and pay of Secretary.

Satbir Bedi, IAS from UT cadre serving as Chairperson, National Council for Teacher Education was given the rank and pay of Secretary. Umesh Sinha, UP cadre IAS, currently serving as Deputy Election Commissioner has been given the rank and pay of Secretary, it said.

(With PTI inputs)