Soon after Sumit Bose took charge as disinvestment secretary in February 2010, he was given the ambitious task of raising Rs 40,000 crore from public sector disinvestment in 2010-11. At the end of the year, Bose could manage to add only about Rs 23,000 crore to the government’s kitty, but the finance ministry clarified that it was a deliberate decision to defer a few sell-offs, since its finances were in good shape.
A year later, Bose has taken charge as expenditure secretary, and is also tipped to be the finance secretary when revenue secretary Sunil Mitra retires later this month. He has taken charge at a time when the government is struggling to keep its expenditure under control and meet its growth and fiscal deficit targets. The challenge before Bose would be to rein in the fiscal deficit and keep it at 4.6 per cent of GDP.
The senior-most among all the secretaries in the finance ministry is made the finance secretary. Though Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan is also from the same batch, Bose is likely to be named the finance secretary, as he is above Gopalan in the merit-cum-seniority list of 1976-batch IAS officers. Bose’s chances will be scuttled only if the government gets in his senior as revenue secretary.
Unlike some past finance secretaries, who occupied the post for less than one year, the 57-year-old may have about three years in which to take policy action and proceed with reforms in North Block.
Bose joined the 13th Finance Commission in August 2007 as officer on special duty in the rank of an additional secretary in the finance ministry, and within four months he was re-designated secretary. In his past stints in the Union government, Bose has worked in the ministries of company affairs, human resources development and industries.
A Doon School alumnus and an IAS officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, Bose is considered a capable bureaucrat and was in demand in various ministries when his stint as secretary at the 13th Finance Commission came to an end. His down-to-earth attitude has made him a favourite among finance ministers, fellow colleagues as well as the media.
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Bose did an MA in History from St Stephen’s College and an MSc in Social Policy Planning from the London School of Economics. He is also credited with launching the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as the joint secretary in the human resource development ministry.
From 1994 to 1996 he served as secretary, school education, in Madhya Pradesh. Between 2004 and 2007, he was the principal secretary, finance, in the Madhya Pradesh government.