IAS Arvind Mehta appointed OSD in Advance Cell of 15th Finance Commission; Vipul Bansal as PS to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman

THE government has kickstarted the process of forming the 15th Finance Commission after appointing 1984 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS Arvind Mehta as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Advance Cell of 15th Finance Commission, at the rank of a union additional secretary. The advance cell is created to make preparatory arrangements for setting up of the Commission. Meanwhile, the government had approved the appointment of five private secretaries to ministers including Nirmala Sitharaman (defence), Suresh Prabhu (commerce and industry) and Piyush Goyal (railway). Here below are the details of the appointments:

1. Vipul Bansal, 2005 batch Karnataka cadre IAS, has been appointed as private secretary to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, at the rank of deputy secretary. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, Bansal was already PS to Sitharaman in the commerce ministry. He is a chartered accountant-turned IAS. 

2. The government has approved the appointment of 2004 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS Pingale Vijay Maruti as the private secretary to commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu. Hailing from Maharashtra, Maruti was with minister Prabhu in the ministry of railways. He is an MBBS-tuned IAS.

3. 2002 batch Kerala cadre IAS Saurabh Jain has been appointed as private secretary to MOS (independent), culture Mahesh Sharma. 

4. Amitabh Prasad, 2001 batch Indian Audit and Account Service officer, has been appointed as private secretary to railway minister Piyush Goyal. 

5. Manu Tentiwal, 2003 batch IRS-IT officer, has been appointed as private secretary in MoS (independent charge), labour Santosh Kumar Gangwar. 

Meanwhile, Shreeshail Malge, 2002 batch Indian Railway Accounts Service, has been appointed as director in the ministry of home affairs. Also, Ms Samyukta Samaddar, 1999 batch UP cadre IAS, has been appointed as OSD in NITI Aayog. She is currently posted as director in the department of heavy industry. And Satish Kerba Jadhav, 2005 batch Indian Civil Accounts Service officer, has been appointed as deputy secretary in the department of administrative reforms and public grievances. 

In an unrelated development, the President of India has accepted the resignation of Chhatar Singh from the post of Member, UPSC with effect from September 22, 2017. Singh is a 1980 batch former Haryana cadre IAS.