Edelweiss Financial Services appoints ex-finance secretary Sunil Mitra as independent director

Sunil Mitra, a 1975 batch West Bengal cadre IAS and former finance secretary, has been inducted as an independent director of Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd, a financial services company engaged in asset management, capital markets, credit, housing finance, insurance services etc. Mitra who had served as disinvestment secretary and revenue secretary was designated as finance secretary only for a month after 1974 batch IAS Sushama Nath, incidentally the first woman finance secretary in India, retired in May 2011.

It was widely speculated that Sumit Bose would succeed Nath as finance secretary, but the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee chose to follow the seniority criteria and designated Mitra as finance secretary for a month. It was another matter that RS Gujral, then road transport and highways secretary and batch-mate of Sumit Bose had by then joined as revenue secretary and surprised everyone to become finance secretary on the strength of his higher position in 1976 batch merit-cum-seniority list.

Mitra was additional chief secretary of the West Bengal government before he moved to New Delhi to become disinvestment secretary in July 2009. Earlier, Mitra was on a Central deputation and was director in the ministry of defence between 1989 and 1991.

Action and Appointments

a) It is proposed to fill up the post of financial adviser in North Eastern Council (NEC) secretariat at Shillong in Meghalaya. The post will be at the rank of a joint secretary. The officers empaneled at the joint secretary level are eligible to apply.

b) Ms Kavita Gupta, a 1985 batch Maharashtra cadre IAS, has been appointed as additional Director General of Foreign Trade at the joint secretary level. She will be posted in Mumbai.

c) V Venkatachalam, a 1977 batch UP cadre IAS, has been appointed as special secretary in agriculture ministry.