Cash News
The government’s appointment of Tuhin Kanta Pandey, who has been leading the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) since October 2019, as finance secretary, culminated the high-level bureaucratic reshuffle in the finance ministry ahead of preparations for Budget 2025-26, which will begin next month.
Pandey, an Odisha cadre IAS officer from the 1987 batch, will now be “first among equals” among the six secretaries in the finance ministry. This position became available following the appointment of TV Somanathan as cabinet secretary last month.
In addition to his role at DIPAM, Pandey currently oversees the department of public enterprises (DPE).
Under Pandey’s astute leadership, central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) have witnessed remarkable wealth creation, even outperforming the private sector. The market capitalisation (Mcap) of 52 listed CPSEs surged 3.6 times, from Rs 10.08 lakh crore on July 12, 2019, to Rs 36.28 lakh crore as of July 12, 2024. This growth outpaced their private peers in the BSE 100 Index, whose Mcap rose 2.8 times over the same period.
This was possible due to a slew of policy measures pushed by Pandey-led DIPAM. Despite the government reducing its stake in several of these companies, the DIPAM’s capital management policy of nudging the central public sector enterprises to increase efficiency, expand capacity and give higher dividends to keep investors’ interest in their stocks has aided the overall performance of the PSUs.
He played instrumental role in the rolling out of the new public sector enterprises (PSEs) policy in 2021. This policy made it clear that apart from ensuring the government’s minimum presence in four strategic sectors, all other companies in strategic sectors and non-strategic sectors would either be privatised or shut down. He has also pushed the government policy to give freedom to the Board of CSPEs to drive disinvestment of their subsidiaries or joint ventures.
During his tenure, the government has made significant progress in privatising CPSEs, including the sale of struggling companies like Air India and Neelachal Ispat Nigam (NINL). The strategic sale of IDBI Bank is currently in progress and is expected to be completed within the current financial year. Pandey’s approach to capital management focuses on comprehensive value creation—through disinvestment, dividends, capital expenditure by CPSEs, and asset monetisation—rather than simply meeting a disinvestment revenue target.
Pandey, who holds an MA in Economics from Punjab University and an MBA from the University of Birmingham (UK), brings extensive experience in industrial development, financial management, and public finance, having served in various capacities with both the Government of Odisha and the Government of India.
Last month, the government appointed Manoj Govil (lAS, MP:91) as expenditure secretary and Nagaraju Maddirala (lAS, TR:93) as financial services secretary, as part of a bureaucratic reshuffle.