New Delhi: Rajiv Kumar, the former Finance Secretary is now the new Election Commissioner. This is notified by the Law Ministry in a notification. Kumar is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1984 batch.
On August 31, Rajiv Kumar will take charge of the post, the day Ashok Lavasa leaves his office. Ashok Lavasa will be joining as the Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank.
Rajiv Kumar has a BSc degree and also an LLB degree. Also, he has a master’s degree in public policy and sustainability. He has over 30 years of experience in public policy and administration across various sectors.
Kumar took over as the secretary of the Department of Financial Services in September. He took over the post when most of the public sector banks were in loss. In July 2019, he was designated as Finance Secretary. He is the main person behind the merging of 10 public sector banks into four.
During Kumar’s two-and-half-year as Finance Secretary, he also made several policy decisions. His policy decisions were to promote responsive and responsible banking. The massive Rs. 3 Lakh Crore’s recapitalization of banks was also undertaken during his tenure.
Rajiv Kumar was also instrumental in brokering peace between the Centre and Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This resulted in the smooth transfer of Rs. 1.76 Lakh Crore of the Central Bank’s surplus to exchequer last year.
He was also the main person in taking ahead PM Narendra Modi’s plan of financial inclusion. Before joining the Finance Ministry, Kumar was the Establishment Officer (EO) in the Personnel Ministry. He was also the leading person in the initiation and implementation of the 59-minute load scheme for the MSME sector.