After being appointed as the power secretary in a major bureaucratic reshuffle, Subash Chandra Garg, former finance and economic affairs secretary has applied for voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), with effect from October 31.

In a major bureaucratic shuffle on Wednesday night, several posts were shuffled including Garg’s. Atanu Chakraborty, the current Secretary for Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) was appointed as the next Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs, while former power secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was appointed as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In his last tweet from the Twitter handle of Secretary of DEA, Garg said, “Handed over charge of Economic Affairs today. Learnt so much in the Finance Ministry and Economic Affairs Dept. Will take charge in Power Ministry tomorrow. Have also applied for Voluntary Retirement from the IAS with effect from 31st October. Last tweet from this handle.”

Garg took charge as the department of economic affairs secretary in 2017 and became the finance secretary in March 2019. He is a 1983 batch IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre.

With Garg out of the Finance Ministry, the government will now have to choose between the current revenue secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey and financial services secretary Rajiv Kumar to be given the position of the finance secretary. Interestingly, both the officers are senior most in the ministry joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) on August 21, 1984. However, Kumar is senior to Pandey on age. Government will decide on this while appointing the next finance secretary. 

Further, the cabinet committee on appointments also approved the appointment of Guruprasad Mohapatra, the current Chairman, Airports Authority of India as the Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry.