Omita Paul, Raghuram G Rajan and North Block’s lucky room 132-A

WITH celebrity economist Raghuram G Rajan being appointed as new RBI Governor, North Block’s room number 132-A has proved lucky for its occupant, once more. The room that adjoins finance minister’s corner room was earlier occupied by Omita Paul who…
had moved to Rashtrapati Bhavan as secretary to President, a position which was held only by IAS officers till Paul joined the league. Paul is an Indian Information Service officer, and had left the service before she joined as an adviser to then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on a contract basis. The post of secretary to President is high in rank though it may command no power as such.
When Raghuram Rajan moved to the North Block as government’s chief economic adviser last summer, he got a better deal than his predecessor Kaushik Basu, at least in terms of his office real estate. Basu’s room on the ground floor was much smaller than 132-A which was vacated by Paul when Rajan stepped in. In fact, Rajan’s room is located between that of P Chidambaram and Arvind Mayaram, the DEA secretary who was also in the race for the coveted Mint Street post.
Rajan, 50, is appointed as the central bank governor for three years, but the term is extendable, as it was done in case of current incumbent D Subbarao. With Rajan’s appointment as governor, the IAS cadre will have to surrender one key economy post after holding onto it for one decade. YV Reddy, a retired IAS of 1964, was RBI’s governor of five years before Subbarao joined it as its head. 

Action and Appointments
a) Gokul Chandra Pati, a 1978 batch Odisha cadre IAS and secretary in the department of animal husbandry, has been appointed as secretary in the department of defence production in the vacancy of RK Mathur, a 1977 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS.
b) Anup Kumar Thakur, a 1979 batch Assam cadre IAS and special secretary in the department of agriculture, has been appointed as new animal husbandry secretary.