Tuhin K Pandey appointed disinvestment secretary

Tuhin Kanta Pandey, a 1987 batch IAS officer from the Odisha cadre, has been named secretary at the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam). Ashok Malik, Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, a private think tank, has been appointed policy advisor in the Ministry of External Affairs, with the rank of additional secretary. He was earlier press advisor to the President of India. Pandey will replace Anil Kumar Khachi, who will go back to his parent cadre of Himachal Pradesh, on personal grounds, stated the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. It had, only last week, assigned additional responsibility for Dipam to Atanu Chakraborty, secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs. The government has set an ambitious target of ~1.05 trillion from disinvestment for the current fiscal year. Only ~12,357 crore has been realised so far. Some big-ticket ones are on the cards, including strategic sale of Bharat Petroleum Corporation. The Cabinet recently approved a policy to make Dipam the nodal department for disinvestment. In other changes, Sanjeev Nandan Sahai, a 1986-batch IAS officer with the Uttarakhand cadre and hitherto special secretary, power, was promoted to secretary of the department. He will succeed Subhash Chandra Garg, who retires this month-end. Pankaj Kumar, additional secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will be chief executive officer of the Unique Identification Authority of India. Pramod Kumar Das, special secretary in the Department of Expenditure, will be secretary in the Ministry of Minority Affairs. Nagendra Nath Sinha, chairman, National Highways Authority of India, was named secretary, border management, in the Ministry of Home Affairs.