A look at the team behind Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Union Budget 2021

The year 2020 has dealt a massive blow to the global economy and India wasn’t spared. Reeling from the aftershocks of a lingering slowdown and the Covid-19-induced lockdown, the Indian economy would be looking for some respite in the upcoming Union Budget. After several rounds of pre-budget meetings between the government and the stakeholders, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is gearing up to present her third Union Budget on February 1.

Let’s take a look at the names that aided the minister in formulating it:

Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor

Subramanian, who was a professor at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, was appointed as the CEA in 2018.

Subramanian’s major task as the CEA is to compile and publish the Economic Survey of India which is made public a day before the Union Budget is tabled. The CEA’s role becomes more pronounced as the content of the Economic Survey reflects the current trend in the country's economy and is a comprehensive report card of the economy in that fiscal year.

A Ph.D. from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, Subramanian has been part of expert committees on corporate governance for market regulator SEBI and on the governance of banks for the Reserve Bank of India. He has also been on the boards of several other banking institutions.

A B P Pandey, Finance Secretary

Former Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, a 1984-batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, was named as the finance secretary in January last year. An IIT-Kanpur alumnus, Pandey has also headed the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as its CEO and has been the Chairman of the GSTN. He had revamped the way Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company worked during his time as the managing director. In the past, he has also held a position at the Maharashtra Sales Tax Department.

Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary

With a spate of privatisation efforts underway, the role of the DIPAM secretary in the Budget cannot be ruled out. 1987-batch IAS officer Pandey has served as the principal secretary of the Finance department of the Odisha government and has also held other posts in the state government. He was appointed as the DIPAM’s Secretary in 2019.

The space given to the Air India and BPCL stake sale along with that of other institutions like LIC, IDBI, BEML, SCI, among others, would be something to watch out for in the upcoming budget.

Tarun Bajaj, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs

1988-batch IAS officer Bajaj, who has served as the Additional Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, was appointed as Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs in April last year. Bajaj has been the joint Secretary in the Economic Affairs Department, looking after multilateral funding agencies division. He also worked as Joint Secretary and Director in the Department of Financial Services. As a Joint Secretary in the Department of Financial Services for four years, he was looking after the insurance division. An old hand at the Finance Ministry, Bajaj was made the secretary of DEA when the economy was in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.

T V Somanathan, Expenditure Secretary

Senior IAS officer T V Somanathan was appointed as the Expenditure Secretary in December 2019 prior to which he was serving in his cadre state Tamil Nadu. The 1987-batch officer, who holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Calcutta University, has also served as the joint secretary in the Prime Minister's Office in the past. The expenditure secretary’s role will be crucial as analysts have hinted that the government's spending plans particularly on infrastructure and social sectors as well as relief to sections hit by the pandemic and lockdown will dictate the pace of recovery.

Debasish Panda, Financial Services Secretary

Senior IAS officer Debasish Panda was appointed as the financial services secretary in February 2020. A 1987-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, Panda has served in various capacities in both state and central government. He was also nominated to the Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of India board earlier last year.

(With PTI inputs)