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Tuhin Kanta Pandey appointed Finance Secretary

Submitted by admin on September 13th, 2024

Currently, Mr. Pandey is holding the post of Secretary in the Finance Ministry with responsibility of two divisions; the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

The Centre on Saturday (September 7, 2024) dropped T. V. Somanathan as the Finance Secretary and appointed 1987 batch IAS officer from the Orissa cadre Tuhin Kanta Pandey even as the latter was appointed as the new Cabinet Secretary by the Cabinet’s apex appointment panel.
Since April 2018 he holds the position of the Secretary in the Finance Ministry responsible for two sectors the Departments of Public Enterprises (DPE), and Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). DIPAM is responsible for the management of optimization of the value of the Central Government firms and Disinvestment in selective firms following the policy of Government for Public Sector Enterprise.

Mr. Pandey has been longest-serving Secretary for DIPAM; the department which was originally known as the Department of Disinvestment during former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s term; and has effectively managed the strategic sale of loss-making national carrier Air India until it was sold to Tata group in January 2022.

The Centre on Saturday (September 7, 2024) accused former IAS officer of 1987 batch of Orissa cadre Tuhin Kanta Pandey as the new Finance Secretary, a little over thirty day after the post’s occupant TV Somanathan was shifted to the higher designation as Cabinet Secretary by the Cabinet’s top posting panel.

Currently, Mr. Pandey is in the Finance Ministry as the Secretary for two major domains, namely the Department of Public Enterprises also known as DPE and the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management also known as DIPAM. In simple terms, DIPAM is responsible for enhancing the value of central government firms and disinvestment in some of these companies in accordance with the government’s policy regarding the public sector undertakings.

Mr. Pandey is one of the most experienced Secretaries to be handling DIPAM, which was earlier known as the Department of Disinvestment during the term of the former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s term and he successfully managed the strategic sale of the loss-making national carrier Air India that continued to impose a burden on the exchequer until its divestment to the Tata group last January.

“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet [ACC] has approved designating Shri Tuhin Kanta Pandey (IAS OR:”87, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, Ministry of Finance, as Finance Secretary,” the secretariat to the ACC under the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in an order issued on Saturday (September 7 immediate)).

This appointment has come at the backdrop of other major changes that have been effected in the Finance Ministry’s leadership over the past one month not only a change of role for Mr. Somanathan who has now been promoted to become the chief official in government as Cabinet Secretary being the rank currently occupied by Gauba.

The Expenditure Secretary post had been given to the former Ministry of Corporate Affairs Secretary Manoj Govil who is a 1991 batch officer belonging to the Madhya Pradesh Cadre were appointed on 16 August 2024. The same day a broader bureaucratic reshuffling plan saw Nagaraju Maddirala, an IAS of the Tripura cadre, 1993 batch joining as the Secretary in the Department of Financial Services where Vivek Joshi (1989 batch, Haryana cadre IAS officer) was transferred to the DoPT as Secretary.