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