A go getter bureaucrat has been named as the country’s new Petroleum Czar. Official orders for the appointment of Saurabh Chandra as Secretary Petroleum has been issued. He is 1978 batch UP cadre IAS and secretary in department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has finally clinched a bigger ministry. Chandra will be India’s new petroleum secretary at a time when the row over gas price increase that would benefit Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has taken a political turn with the Aam Admi Party making it a big electoral issue ahead of Lok Sabha poll.
Earlier, Chandra missed being at the helm of two ministries–Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and Commerce, where his name cropped up as potential secretaries. Chandra held additional charge as commerce secretary in May 2012 when Rahul Khullar had joined the telecom regulator as its chairman. But Chandra’s batch-mate and Gujarat cadre IAS SR Rao turned out to be the dark horse and became commerce secretary demolishing speculations of Raisina Hills.
Many were then convinced that Chandra would be made secretary in the department of economic affairs. But when the then DEA secretary R Gopalan’s extended tenure ended on July 31 2012, finance minister P Chidambaram instead hand-picked Chandra’s batch-mate Arvind Mayaram who incidentally had worked with PC during UPA-I. In fact, many then thought DIPP secretary would make into DEA as it was a convention that no officer used to get the post of DEA secretary straight-away. Whether it was Ashok Jha, Ashok Chawla or R Gopalan, everyone had moved from one small ministry to the DEA. Chidambaram broke the convention and appointed Mayaram instead who joined the DEA straight as a secretary.
An electrical engineer before joining as IAS, Chandra had worked as a joint secretary in the department of disinvestment under the Ministry of Finance when UPA-I government began its journey with the support of the Left that opposed any disinvestment tooth and nail. Earlier, he was a district magistrate first in Banda and then in Varanasi. Chandra will retire in April, 2015.