• Finance Secretary T.V. Somanathan was named as the new Cabinet Secretary by the government for a tenure of two years.

• He will succeed incumbent Rajiv Gauba, who completes his unprecedented five-year term in the top bureaucratic post this month-end.

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved Somanathan’s appointment as the Cabinet Secretary with a tenure of two years from August 30.

• The ACC-led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also approved his appointment as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Cabinet Secretariat from the date he joins the assignment till he takes over as Cabinet Secretary.

• Meanwhile, a new Union Home Secretary is also likely to be appointed by the government soon, as incumbent Ajay Kumar Bhalla (a 1984 batch IAS officer) completes his five-year tenure on August 22.

Who is T.V. Somanathan?

• Somanathan, a 1987 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, served as Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office under Modi for a little over two years between 2015 and 2017.

• Later, he served in his cadre state before being appointed as the Expenditure Secretary in December 2019.

• Somanathan (now 59 years) was designated as the Finance Secretary in April 2021.

• He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CA) and Company Secretary (CS).

• The veteran bureaucrat also has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in economics from Calcutta University.

• Somanathan is also the chairman of a committee, set up in April last year, to review the pension system for government employees.

• He has served in different positions in his cadre state, Centre and abroad.

• Somanathan worked in the World Bank (USA), joint secretary in the Corporate Affairs Ministry and as managing director of Chennai Metro Corporation among others.

• Somanathan played a key role in designing several Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes and significantly contributed to the PM Garib Kalyan and Atmanirbhar Bharat announcements in 2020.

Who is Rajiv Gauba?

• Gauba will have a distinction of being the longest serving Cabinet Secretary of the country.

• Till now, B.D. Pande has the longest tenure on the top post from November 2, 1972, to March 31, 1977. Gauba, a former Union Home Secretary, was in 2019 appointed to the country's top bureaucratic post for two years.

• He was given one-year extensions thrice — in 2021, 2022 and the latest in August last year.

• A 1982-batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, he is said to be the key architect of the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, under which the erstwhile state was bifurcated into Union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh following the abrogation of the special status given to it under Article 370 of the Constitution.

The role of a Cabinet Secretary

• The Cabinet Secretary is the highest-ranking executive official and the senior-most civil servant in the government of India. 

• As the ex-officio head of the Civil Services Board, the Cabinet Secretariat, the IAS, and all civil services, they play a crucial role under the government’s rules of business. 

• Ranking eleventh in the Indian order of precedence, the Cabinet Secretary serves under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister and is appointed for a fixed tenure of two years. 

• The Cabinet Secretariat oversees the administration of the Transaction of Business and the Allocation of Business Rules, 1961.

Functions of Cabinet Secretariat:

• This Secretariat provides secretarial assistance to the Cabinet and its committees, and also assists in decision-making in government by ensuring inter-ministerial coordination, ironing out differences amongst ministries/departments and evolving consensus through the instrumentality of the standing/ad hoc committees of secretaries. Through this mechanism new policy initiatives are also promoted.

• The Cabinet Secretariat ensures that the President, the Vice President and ministers are kept informed of the major activities of all ministries/ departments by means of monthly summary of their activities. 

• Management of major crisis situations in the country and coordinating activities of various Ministries in such a situation is also one of the functions of the Cabinet Secretariat.

The origin of Cabinet Secretariat

• Before the adoption of the portfolio system in the government of India, all governmental business was disposed of by the Governor-General in Council, the Council functioning as a Joint Consultative Board. 

• As the amount and complexity of business of the government increased, the work of the various departments was distributed amongst the members of the Council, only the more important cases being dealt with by the Governor-General or the Council collectively.

• This procedure was legalised by the Indian Councils Act, 1861 during the time of Lord Canning, leading to the introduction of the portfolio system and the inception of the Executive Council of the Governor-General.

• The Secretariat of the Executive Council was headed by the Private Secretary to the Viceroy, but he did not attend the Council meetings. 

• Lord Willingdon first started the practice of having his private secretary by his side at these meetings. Later, this practice continued and in November  1935, the Viceroy’s Private Secretary was given the additional designation of Secretary to the Executive Council. 

• But these posts were separated subsequently, and a separate secretary was appointed to the Executive Council as distinct from the Private Secretary to the Viceroy and Governor General.

• Constitution of the interim government in September 1946 brought a change in the name of this Office. 

• On September 5, 1946, the Secretariat of the Executive Council was designated as Cabinet Secretariat, and the Secretary to the Executive Council as Cabinet Secretary. 

• It seems, however, at least in retrospect, that Independence brought a sort of change in the functions of the Cabinet Secretariat. It no longer remained concerned with only the work of circulating papers to ministers and ministries, but developed into an organisation for effecting coordination between the ministries.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)