IN AND OUT
The Ministry of Finance is likely to see a massive churn of its top officials should Pranab Mukherjee move to Rashtrapati Bhavan. At least three senior officials are tipped to shift to the President’s Secretariat. The powerful adviser to the finance minister, Omita Paul will certainly move up the Raisina Hill. Also upwardly mobile are— Bimal Julka, a 1979- batch IAS officer who is additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs and Thomas Mathew, an IAS officer of the 1983 batch, joint secretary of the important capital markets desk. Two important slots will also fall vacant around the time of the presidential election— R. Gopalan, secretary, Economic Affairs, will retire on July 31, while Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu returns to Cornell University in August. Should there be a new finance minister, he will have the final say in the succession of Gopalan and Basu.