Finance minister Arun Jaitley has several new members in his team as he prepares to present his fifth federal budget this Thursday.
The finance ministry has two junior ministers — Pon Radhakrishnan from Tamil Nadu and Shiv Pratap Shukla from Uttar Pradesh. Shukla wasn't in the team last year.
Hasmukh Adhia (finance secretary)
The righthand man of prime minister Narendra Modi. When Modi was the chief minister in Gujarat, Adhia was his principal secretary. This 1981-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre became the finance secretary in last October, but even before that, he was seen as the most powerful man in the finance ministry. Has an M.Com degree, a diploma in public policy management and a PhD in yoga. Regarded as a strict boss, he was one of the key figures behind the demonetization decision.
Subhash Chandra Garg (economic affairs secretary)
This 1983-batch IAS official of the Rajasthan cadre was an executive director at the World Bank. Had faced controversies over his blunt comments on several subjects. Became the economic affairs secretary in 2017 June.
Ajay Narayan Jha (expenditure secretary)
A Manipur-cadre IAS official of the 1982 batch, Jha was appointed to the current position in 2017 October. This former Finance Commission member’s key responsibility is to look for measures to reduce government expenses.
Rajiv Kumar (financial services secretary)
This IAS officer of the 1984 batch from the Jharkhand cadre had brought online the annual performance evaluation process of government officials. In his current position since 2017 August, he is the force behind the bank recapitalization program.
Arvind Subramanian (chief economic adviser)
Unless he gets an extension, this could well be the last budget for Subramanian as the chief economic adviser, a position he has been holding since 2014. This IIM-Ahmedabad and Oxford alumnus had taught at Peterson Institute for International Economics, Harvard and Johns Hopkins' School for Advanced International Studies. Has a non-traditional approach and advocates higher government spending. Efforts to push the universal basic income system — the government paying a certain amount to every citizen — have not been successful.
Neeraj Gupta (disinvestment secretary)
A 1984-batch Uttar Pradesh-cadre IAS official, Gupta has succeeded in meeting the 2017-18 revenue target from selling stakes in state-run companies. The government has raised Rs 91,000 crore in this account this fiscal year.
Rajiv Kumar (Niti Aayog vice-chairman)
A senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research in Delhi, Kumar has a doctorate in Economics from Oxford University. He was a former secretary of industry association Ficci and the chief economic adviser to CII. Had also worked at the Asian Development Bank.