Cabinet Secretary | Business Upturn

Centre appoints Dr. T.V. Somanathan as Cabinet Secretary

Aman Shukla — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 11:46:39 +0000

Dr. T.V. Somanathan takes over as Cabinet Secretary in the Government of India today, after the superannuation of Shri Rajiv Gaub. Dr. Somanathan is an IAS officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre (1987 batch). He has a Ph.D. in economics from Calcutta University. Furthermore, he has completed Harvard Business School’s Executive Development Program, making him a fully qualified cost Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant and Company Secretary.

Dr. Somanathan has held significant assignments in the Center, including Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office. Furthermore, he was appointed as Director of Corporate Affairs at the World Bank in Washington, DC, and held the post of Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. He served as Finance Secretary and Secretary of the Department of Expenditure before stepping in as Cabinet Secretary.

He had several important roles in the Tamil Nadu State Government, including Managing Director of Chennai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd., Secretary to the Chief Minister and Additional Chief Secretary & Commissioner of Commercial Taxes during the crucial time of the introduction of the GST. He also served as Commissioner, Disciplinary Proceedings. As the founder and Managing Director of Metro Rail Corporation Limited in Chennai, he was in charge of securing financial closure and awarding the initial tenders for the Chennai Metro Rail Project.

Rajiv Gauba, the cabinet secretary, receives a one-year extension as the center eases regulations

Avinash Ram — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 16:23:46 +0000

According to a Personnel Ministry decision, the Centre on Thursday loosened crucial regulations to grant Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba a one-year extension past August 30, 2023. He will hold the record for the nation’s longest-serving cabinet secretary after this third extension is complete.

B D Pande held the title of longest-serving cabinet secretary up until this point. He served from November 2, 1972, to March 31, 1977. Gauba, a former Union home secretary, was nominated to the highest bureaucratic position for the nation in 2019 for a two-year term. In August of last year and again in 2021, he received one-year extensions. Gauba, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the 1982 batch and a member of the Jharkhand cadre, has been granted a one-year extension in his or her employment, in accordance with a relaxation of the AIS or All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits or DCRB)

The rules permit the central government to offer the cabinet secretary an extension of service if it is in the public interest, “provided that the total term of the cabinet secretary, who is granted such extensions of service, shall not exceed four years.” Gauba will be able to retain his position through the general elections scheduled for early next year thanks to the most recent extension.

Gauba is credited with being the primary architect of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which saw the former state divided into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh after the special status granted to it under Article 370 of the Constitution was revoked. Rules, 1958, and Rule 56(d) of the Fundamental Rules, according to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).

Along with other duties, he had held the positions of additional secretary in the interior ministry and secretary in the Union’s department for urban development, where he oversaw a vital section dealing with left-wing extremism. Gauba, a Patna University graduate who was born in Punjab, has a degree in physics. Before returning to the federal government in 2016, he had worked as the chief secretary for 15 months in Jharkhand.

Cabinet Secretary conducts a high level panel meeting over privatization of banks

Diya S. — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 09:51:52 +0000

The Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba conducted a meeting with leading a high level panel to crush multiple regulatory as well as administrative issues in such a way that the proposal can be placed with the group of ministers for the approval on disinvestment or Alternative Mechanism (AM) and hence, approaching a step closer to the privatization of two public sector banks.

According to sources familiar with the matter, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement in the Budget Speech, 2021, several names of banks have been suggested by the NITI Aayog for privatization to the Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment led by Cabinet Secretary in the month of April.

The panel after tying up all loose ends will be sending the names of PSU banks that have been shortlisted to the AM for consideration. After receiving a clearance from AM, it will go to the Prime Minister for the final indication.

Secretaries in the department of Economic Affairs, Revenue, Expenditure, Corporate Affairs and Legal Affairs, Secretary of Administrative Department, Department of Public Enterprises, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) secretary were the members of the panel to attend the meeting.

The panel also looked into issues in terms of protection of interests of bank’s workers which is possibly going to get privatized.

Reportedly, Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank are the probable privatization candidates. On February 1, the FM had said, “Other than IDBI Bank, we propose to take up the privatization of two public sector banks and one general insurance company in the year 2021-22.”

India records 3.68 lakh fresh COVID-19 cases, 3417 deaths in last 24 hours

Nitin Anand — Mon, 03 May 2021 08:23:18 +0000

On Monday, May 3, Union Health Ministry released the data of new COVID-19 cases in India, there is decrease in new cases from previous day.

Report released by the Union Health Ministry states that in the last 24 hours, India reported 3,68,147 new COVID-19 cases and 3,00,732 patients got discharge, while 3,417 people died of this deadly virus. Total active cases in India is now around 33.13 lakhs. The total death toll in India reached to 2,18,959.

India reports 3,68,147 new #COVID19 cases, 3,00,732 discharges, and 3,417 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry

Total cases: 1,99,25,604
Total recoveries: 16,29,3003
Death toll: 2,18,959
Active cases: 34,13,642

Total vaccination: 15,71,98,207 pic.twitter.com/C0UrYU3q44

— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2021

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also released a data that shows 29,16,47,037 samples were tested up to May 2, including 15,04,698 samples tested yesterday.

The total vaccination across the country has crossed more than 15.71 Cr mark. The country has administered more than 16 lakh vaccine doses till 8 pm on May 2.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 15,71,98,207.

On May 2, Shri Rajiv Gauba, Cabinet Secretary, Government of India, today reviewed various aspects of COVID-19 preparedness in Delhi. Officials of the Government of NCT of Delhi (GNCTD) made a presentation in the meeting, covering issues of recent trends in active cases, deaths and positivity rate; availability and expansion plans of medical infrastructure; status of oxygen availability; home isolation procedures and helpline; ambulance services; and testing.

Union Health Ministry official stressed the need to restart the earlier practice of transparent electronic displays, at each hospital site, of the number of beds available in that facility for COVID patients. The Additional Secretary, Health also emphasized the need for setting up oxygen audit Committees in various hospitals and medical facilities.