Ashok Lavasa Becomes New Finance Secretary

Senior IAS officer Ashok Lavasa was on 31 May 2016 was appointed as the Finance Secretary. Lavasa, at present serving as the Expenditure Secretary, is a 1980 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre.
•    The post was lying vacant since April 2016 after the retirement of Ratan Watal. After retirement, Watal was appointed as principle advisor, social sector, in the NITI Aayog.
•    Prior to this appointment, he served as Civil Aviation Secretary and Environment Secretary.
•    Before that, he served in various capacities in the Ministries of Power, Renewable Energy among others.
•    He holds a Master’s degree in English literature from Delhi University and an MBA from Southern Cross University in Australia.
•    Prior to joining the civil services, he taught literature and also had a brief stint at State Bank of India.
•    He did his schooling from Belgaum Military School, one of the five military schools in India, from 1966 to 1973.
•    He co-authored a book titled An Uncivil Servant with former IAS officer and Stellar Group’s Chairman Ravi Mohan Sethi.
•    Norms for appointment of Finance Secretary
•    According to the existing norms, the senior most of the five secretaries in the Finance Ministry is appointed as Finance Secretary. The other four senior secretaries and their post includes
•    Shaktikanta Das is Secretary, Economic Affairs
•    Hasmukh Adhia is Revenue Secretary
•    Anjuly Chib Duggal is Secretary, Department of Financial Services
•    Neeraj Kumar Gupta is Secretary in Department of Investment and Public Asset Management