Know Your Babu: Manipur cadre IAS AN Jha will be Union finance secretary for 3 months

AN Jha

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Monday approved designating AN

Jha, 1982 batch Manipur cadre lAS and secretary in the department of expenditure, as the new finance secretary. Jha will be the finance secretary for  a little less than three months, as he will retire on January 31, 2019. Incumbent Hasmukh Adhia, a 1981 batch Gujarat cadre IAS, retired in the end of the last month. An alumnus of St. Stephens College of Delhi where he did his post-graduation in history before getting selected into IAS, Jha is the…

senior most IAS among all the five finance ministry secretaries. In fact, finance secretary is more a designation than a post with specific work allocations. Jha will continue to be the in-charge of the department of expenditure.   

Jha, originally belonging to Bihar, was the Union environment secretary before being appointed in the department of expenditure in 2017. He had also served as additional secretary and then special secretary in the department of expenditure. During his central deputation, Jha also worked as joint secretary in the department of higher education and the ministry of social justice and empowerment.

In 1999, Jha did a short-term consultancy programme, in UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). 

In early 2000s, he also had an innings in the Election Commission of India (ECI). 

According to media reports, Jha was a recipient of the World Bank scholarship to pursue his masters degree in economic policy management from McGill University, Canada, though his executive record sheet, as maintained by the DoPT, has no mention about it.

In an unrelated development, the government has clarified that the reports of appointing an OSD of the DG rank to look after the affairs of the CBI and also appointing a senior IAS officer in a supervisory role in the investigative agency, are both false.