Former Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal, who retired last month, has been appointed as Principal Adviser for social sector in Niti Aayog.

A retired IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, Watal’s tenure will be of three years, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

The NDA had given him a two-month extension early this year.
The Narendra Modi government had also used the services of Watal, when he was Finance Secretary, to brief PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti about the measures taken by the Centre to help Jammu and Kashmir when she was dilly-dallying on a decision on the alliance with BJP.

Watal had been Finance Secretary between August last year and April this year.
In other appointments, the Centre gave new assignments to eight Additional Secretaries.
Shalini Prasad, a 1985-batch IAS officer of UP cadre, has been appointed as Additional Secretary in Power Ministry in place of Badri Narain Sharma, a 1985-batch Rajasthan cadre officer, who is moving to Department of Revenue in Finance Ministry.

Madhulika P Sukul, Indian Defence Audit Services officer, has been sent to Department of Consumer Affairs as incumbent G Gurucharan, a 1982-batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer, was promoted as Secretary (Performance Management) in Cabinet Secretariat.

Rajani Ranjan Rashmi, Manipur cadre IAS officer of 1983 batch, presently Additional Secretary in Department of Commerce, has been moved to Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. He replaces Hem Kumar Pande of West Bengal cadre, who will take charge of Department of Official Language in Ministry of Home Affairs as its Secretary.

Girish Chandra Murmu of Gujarat cadre, presently Additional Secretary in Department of Expenditure, has been transfered to Department of Financial Services in place of Snehlata Shrivastava on her appointment as Secretary of Department of Justice in