Tuhin Kanta Pandey is the busiest secretary in the Union government today. As the finance secretary – the office that he assumed last September after his predecessor, T V Somanathan, became the Cabinet Secretary – Mr Pandey certainly has innumerable responsibilities to discharge. Being the senior-most secretary in the Union Finance Ministry, Finance Secretary Pandey certainly has a load of tasks to attend to.

However, Mr Pandey’s busy schedule stems from another reason apart from the top post that he holds. The 1987-batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre occupies two more vital positions in the Union government. He was already secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) since October 2019 – and he continues to hold that post – when he took charge as finance secretary. Besides, Mr Pandey has one more additional charge – the secretary of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPEs) since August 2024 and the secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) since November 2024.

Mr Pandey’s multiple responsibilities are a rarity in the Indian civil service. But beyond that, the four vital posts that he has been juggling with clearly shows the 59-year-old senior bureaucrat’s high level of efficiency. His rich experience of over three-and-a-half decades in public administration is definitely helping Mr Pandey to handle these many roles quite effortlessly.

After completing a master’s degree in economics from Panjab University, Chandigarh, young Tuhin entered the bureaucracy as district collector and district magistrate of Sambalpur in Odisha. He went on to take up diverse responsibilities in his long career as deputy secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, special secretary in the General Administration Department, transport commissioner, health secretary and commissioner of Commercial Taxes, among others.

In between, Mr Pandey was transferred to the regional office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in New Delhi. After the UNIDO stint, Mr Pandey, who also has an MBA degree from the United Kingdom, served across various crucial departments of the Odisha government, such as the managing director of Odisha State Financial Corporation and Odisha Small Industries Corporation and the like.

In 2009, Mr Pandey returned to New Delhi as joint secretary in the Planning Commission, which he served for five years. It was after this posting that the top bureaucrat joined the Union Finance Ministry, which he currently heads. During his tenure as DIPAM secretary, he oversaw key disinvestment programmes aimed at maximising the value of Central government companies. The historic sale of Air India was one of the high-profile disinvestment programmes under his leadership. He also helmed the listing of Life Insurance Corporation of India. As the longest-serving DIPAM secretary, he has been in charge of divestment of many other high-profile Central public sector undertakings.

As the finance secretary, Mr Pandey is the principal adviser to the finance minister on all matters of policy and administration within the ministry. His incisive inputs will be going a long way lifting the economy, which in the past few quarters has been slowing down. For now though, Mr Pandey is doubly busy in coordinating with other Central ministries in formulating the Union Budget, which should boost the prospects of the flailing economy.