Ratan Watal designated as finance secy

The government, on Monday, approved the designation of Expenditure Secretary Ratan Watal as the finance secretary. Watal replaces Rajiv Mehrishi, who has taken over charge as the home secretary.

Watal's appointment to the top bureaucratic post in the finance ministry comes as no surprise. The post goes to the seniormost of the ministry's five secretaries who head economic affairs, revenue, expenditure, financial services and disinvestment. Watal is a 1978 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre.

He is known as a model Narendra Modi bureaucrat who keeps away from the media and is known to do his job diligently. He is said to be one of the officials who convinced Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to delay the fiscal consolidation road map.

Jaitley targeted the fiscal deficit for 2015-16 at 3.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) instead of 3.6 per cent as envisaged earlier. Under Watal's watch, the expenditure department has been tasked with ensuring that the government fulfils its stated commitment of increasing public expenditure in infrastructure to drive economic growth. Watal's appointment comes in the wake of a number of changes in the top finance ministry posts, as a result of Mehrishi's tenure as finance and economic affairs secretary coming to an end. It was initially thought that Mehrishi would retire as per plan on August 31, but the Modi government sprung a surprise by naming him home secretary for a period of two years.

Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das, a 1980 batch officer of Tamil Nadu cadre and a veteran of economic policymaking, is now the head of the economic affairs department, under which come key divisions of the ministry like budget-making, multilateral relations, capital markets, infrastructure and investment. Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia is now the revenue secretary. Adhia is a 1981 batch officer of the Gujarat cadre, who has worked with Modi when the latter was the chief minister of the western state. Anjuly Chib Duggal, a 1981 batch Punjab cadre officer, who was the corporate affairs secretary, will now head financial services.