Ajay Narayan Jha takes over as India’s new Finance Secretary

New Delhi: Ajay Narayan Jha, currently working as Secretary, Expenditure, in the Ministry of Finance, will take charge as India’s new Finance Secretary. Jha will succeed Hasmukh Adhia. Jha’s appointment was confirmed on Monday by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A 1982-batch IAS officer, Jha will succeed Adhia, who retired on November 30 after a tenure spanning over four years.

Jha, who pursued his education at St Stephens College in New Delhi, is also the recipient of a World Bank scholarship to pursue Masters in Economic Policy Management from McGill University in Canada. On the day of his retirement, Adhia, in a series of tweets, had thanked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their guidance during his tenure.

Jaitley, too, had penned a blog post for the outgoing Finance Secretary, lauding Adhia for his contributions towards spearheading the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), facilitating a crackdown on black money through demonetisation and contributing for successfully accomplishing the Mudra Yojana. The Finance Minister, in his blog, had also outlined that Adhia’s tenure saw an exponential increase in tax base and tax realisations.