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Economic Affairs Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi was named the new finance secretary on Tuesday, succeeding batchmate Arvind Mayaram to both posts.
According to norms, the finance secretary’s designation is given to the senior-most of the five secretaries in charge of economic affairs, revenue, expenditure, financial services and disinvestment departments.
If there is more than one secretary belonging to the senior-most batch, the finance secretary is chosen based on ranking in the civil list.
Mehrishi, who took charge as the economic affairs secretary on November 1, is a 1978-batch IAS officer and so is expenditure secretary Ratan Watal. However, Mehrishi ranks higher on the civil list.
