Tarun Bajaj, an old hand at the finance ministry, on Friday assumed charge as the economic affairs secretary.
He comes back to North Block at a time when the economy is facing headwinds due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.
Prior to taking over this post, he was an additional secretary in Prime Minister's Office.
Bajaj, a 1988 batch IAS officer, replaces Atanu Chakraborty, who retired on Thursday.
"Shri Tarun Bajaj takes over as the new secretary, department of economic affairs (DEA), today after superannuation of Shri Atanu Chakraborty on 30.04.2020," the finance ministry said in a tweet.
Before joining Prime Minister's Office in 2015, Bajaj was joint secretary in the economic affairs department, looking after multilateral funding agencies division.
He worked as joint secretary and director in the department of financial services.
As a joint secretary in the DFS for four years, he was looking after the insurance division.
