Civil Aviation secretary Ashok Chawla, a Gujarat-cadre IAS officer of the 1973 batch, has been appointed secretary to the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. Earlier, he was additional secretary, economic affairs, from April 2005 to January 2007. He is expected to take charge on Wednesday.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment, an official statement said here today. M Madhavan Nambiar, special secretary, Department of Information Technology, has been appointed civil aviation secretary.

On September 5, Financial Services Secretary Arun Ramanathan was given additional charge of the DEA for three months following the appointment of the incumbent, Duvvuri Subbarao, as governor of the Reserve Bank of India [Get Quote]. He is the senior-most among the five secretaries at North Block, but was not designated finance secretary.

Today's appointment orders are silent on the next finance secretary. The finance ministry has five secretaries. Revenue Secretary PV Bhide and Financial Services Secretary Arun Ramanathan belong to the 1973 batch of the IAS, while Disinvestment Secretary Vivek Mehrotra and Expenditure Secretary Sushma Nath are from the 1974 batch.

The normal practice is to appoint the senior-most of the secretaries in the ministry as the finance secretary. Sources suggest Chawla may eventually be appointed, once Ramanathan superannuates next May.

Meanwhile, Rahul Sarin, secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, has been appointed secretary to the Department of Personnel and Training, while retaining the additional charge of his existing post. Consequently, Rajni Razdan, secretary, Department of Pensions & Pensioners' Welfare, has been relieved of additional charge of the post of personnel secretary.