Shaktikanta Das, a 1980-batch IAS officer, was on Saturday appointed as revenue secretary, replacing Rajiv Takru. Das, 57, who is currently fertiliser secretary, will assume charge by Monday or Tuesday, an official said. Takru, 59, who has been revenue secretary since March, is appointed as secretary in the department of north eastern region. This is the first major bureaucratic change in the ministry since the Narendra Modi government came to power. Das holds a Master’s degree from St Stephen’s College. He has 12 years of experience in handling finance matters at Centre and state level.
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchai Yojana soon
To boost agricultural yield, the agriculture ministry is going to launch ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchai Yojana’. ?The motive of the scheme will be to take irrigation water to every agricultural field in the country. We are chalking out details of the scheme,? agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said in Patna on Saturday. ?Productivity is linked to soil health. The Centre will issue a soil health card to farmers. Help of scientists and agriculture students will be taken to check fertility of fields,? he added.
Arcil expects to acquire bad assets of R5,000 cr in FY15
With PSBs coming forth to sell bad loans, Asset Reconstruction Company (India) (Arcil) on Saturday said it expects to acquire NPAs worth about R5,000 crore this fiscal. ?Last fiscal we had acquired R4,400 crore worth of bad loans from banks. This year we expect R5,000 crore worth of bad assets,? MD-CEO P Rudran said. He said this fiscal, banks could offer bad assets worth R80,000 crore to asset reconstruc-tion companies compared to R50,000 crore last year.