Rajiv Takru will be the financial services secretary from next month, replacing D K Mittal, who retires on January 31, an official announcement said on Wednesday.
Ravi Mathur was appointed as disinvestment secretary. At present, Mittal is holding the additional charge of the divestment department after Haleem Khan retired in November last year. Their names have been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, an official statement said.
Takru, a 1979 IAS batch officer of the Gujarat cadre, is at present additional secretary and financial adviser in the health and family welfare ministry.
The appointment of Takru, who was earlier the chief executive officer of Prasar Bharti and had worked in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is widely expected to cut rates in its monetary review on January 29, after differences emerged between the finance ministry and the central bank over the issue. Also, RBI is expected to come out with final guidelines for banking licences. The finance ministry is expected to soon send its comments on various issues to the central bank.
Mathur, an IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, 1979 batch, will join as disinvestment secretary at a time when the government is struggling to raise money from stake sale in public sector units. The government had set a target of Rs 30,000 to be raised through stake sales this financial year. But so far, it has raised just over Rs 6,900 crore.
Other appointment:
K Vijayraghavan, director, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, was appointed secretary in the department of biotechnology in place of M K Bhan, the release said.
