Four in one

For North Block, headquarters of the Union finance ministry, 2011 will be a year of an unusual record. In the space of just one calendar year, it will have seen as many as four finance secretaries. Ashok Chawla retired at the end of January, a few weeks before the Budget for 2011-12 was presented. This in itself was unusual – rarely have finance secretaries retired just before the Budget is presented. He was succeeded by Sushama Nath, who headed the expenditure department. But Nath had a short stint, retiring on May 31. Immediately thereafter, Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra was made finance secretary. But Mitra is due to retire by the end of June. So, the search for the fourth finance secretary in the same calendar year is on. There are many contenders, with current expenditure secretary Sumit Bose topping the list. But no one knows for sure if the government intends to bring somebody from outside the ministry to head the finance ministry.