The Centre on Tuesday appointed senior IAS officer Vikram Dev Dutt as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India to preside over the handing over of the national carrier to Tata Sons, which has bought it.
Dutt's appointment is part of a bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Narendra Modi government in the top bureaucracy.
A 1993-batch IAS officer of AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, Dutt is presently Principal Secretary (Health) in Delhi government and was handling the Covid-19 containment measures in the national capital. He has been appointed as the Air India chief in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary.
The government had on October 8 last year announced the Tata Sons' Special Purpose Vehicle M/s Talace Pvt Ltd as the buyer of Air India after bidding Rs 18,000 crore. The losing bid of SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh quoted Rs 15,100 crore.
The government was hoping to close the transaction by December-end after issuing the Letter of Intent (LOI), signing of the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) and regulatory approvals. However, there has been a delay and it is now expected to complete soon.
In other appointments, Bihar cadre officer Chanchal Kumar has been appointed as Managing Director, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd.
Pankaj Agrawal, a Madhya Pradesh cadre lAS officer of 1992 batch who is presently Additional Secretary in Cabinet Secretariat, has been transferred as Director General (Acquisition) in the Ministry of Defence in the same rank against V L Kantha Rao, his batchmate from the same cadre who has been moved to Department of Telecommunications.
A 1992-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, Ashish Srivastava, presently in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, has been transferred as Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by cancelling an earlier order regarding his appointment as Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat.
Manish Kumar Gupta will be the new Vice Chairman of Delhi Development Authority. An IAS officer of Union Territory cadre, he is presently DDA Principal Commissioner.
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