Senior bureaucrat Vikram Dev Dutt was on Tuesday named as the new Chairman and Managing Director of Air India.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved Dutt's appointment as the CMD of Air India in the rank and pay of an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
At present, Dutt, a 1993 batch IAS officer, is based in his UT cadre. He succeeds Rajiv Bansal, who is currently the Union Civil Aviation Secretary.
"Shri Vikram Dev Dutt, lAS (UT:93), presently in the cadre, has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director, Air India Ltd, Ministry of Civil Aviation, in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary," ACC said in an order on Tuesday.
The appointment comes before the likely take-over of the airline's management by the Tata Group under the Centre's divestment programme.
Presently, Tata Group has entered into a share purchase agreement with the government for buying out the latter's stake in Air India, Air India Express and AISATS.
Tata Sons' subsidiary Talace emerged as the highest bidder for the national carrier under the divestment process.
The Centre had in October last year accepted Tata Sons bid of Rs 18,000 crore to acquire 100 per cent of the debt-laden state-run carrier. The takeover has not been completed yet.
Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate, had made the winning bid of Rs 2,700 crore cash and Rs 15,300 crore debt takeover.
Manish Kumar Gupta has been appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
Gupta, a 1991-batch IAS officer, is currently Principal Commissioner in the DDA.
Ashish Srivastava, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development will now be Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
Hari Ranjan Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of Telecommunications has been appointed as Administrator, Universal Service Obligation Fund, Department of Telecommunications.
V L Kantha Rao, Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence has been named as Additional Secretary, Department of Telecommunications in place of Rao.
Pankaj Agrawal, Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, will be new Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence in place of Rao, the order said.
Santosh Kumar Sarangi, a 1994-batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, will be Director General, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
He is currently Additional Secretary in Department of School Education and Literacy.
Chanchal Kumar, a 1992 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, has been appointed as Managing Director, National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, it said.
Kumar is at present principal secretary to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish KUmar.
B V Umadevi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, has been appointed as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs.
Anuradha Thakur, Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat has been appointed as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Shashank Goel and Shailesh Kumar Singh have been appointed as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment and Development Commissioner, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, respectively.
Naresh Pal Gangwar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change will be Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, the order said.
