Rajan moves up the ladder, literally

Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Raghuram Rajan has moved up the ladder, literally, and will sit next to Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s office at North Block.

Rajan has shifted from the conventional ground floor room occupied by CEAs to a room on the first floor, adjacent to Chidambaram’s office.

Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram’s room is next to Rajan’s room, which leads to the corridor where the rooms of secretary-financial services D K Mittal, finance secretary R S Gujral and revenue secretary Sumit Bose are located.

Sudha Krishnan, joint secretary, will be the new occupant of Rajan’s ground floor room.

Finance ministry officials said that the change was to ensure operational ease and indicated that the finance minister wanted all the senior officials in the ministry to be on the same floor.

In the earlier dispensation when Pranab Mukherjee was finance minister, his advisor Omita Paul occupied the room closest to him.