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Ajay Narayan Jha
Ajaya Nārāyaṇa Jhā
Jha addressing an event at Gandhinagar, Gujarat in March 2017.
Member of the Sixteenth Finance Commission of India
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 January 2024
Appointed by	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
Member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission of India
In office 4 March 2019 – 26 November 2023
Appointed by	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
Preceded by	Shaktikanta Das
Finance Secretary of India
In office 4 December 2018 – 28 February 2019
Appointed by	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
Minister	Arun Jaitley
Preceded by	Hasmukh Adhia
Succeeded by	Subhash Chandra Garg
Expenditure Secretary of India
In office 31 October 2017 – 28 February 2019
Appointed by	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Minister	Arun Jaitley
Preceded by	Ashok Lavasa
Succeeded by	G. C. Murmu
Environment, Forests and Climate Change Secretary of India
In office 1 May 2016 – 10 October 2017
Appointed by	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Minister	Anil Madhav Dave (2016—2017) Dr. Harsh Varhan (2017)
Preceded by	Ashok Lavasa
Succeeded by	C. K. Mishra
Personal details
Born	Ajay Narayan Jha (1959-01-15) 15 January 1959 (age 65) Bihar, India
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	Harvard Kennedy School McGill University St. Stephen's College, Delhi University
Occupation	Civil servant
Profession	IAS officer

Ajay Narayan Jha (born 15 January 1959; IAST: Ajaya Nārāyaṇa Jhā) is a 1982 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Manipur cadre. He was the Finance Secretary of India for three months. He was appointed as the member of Fifteenth Finance Commission of India in place of Shaktikanta Das and served there till 26 November 2023. Thereafter, he was appointed as a member of Sixteenth Finance Commission on 1 January 2024.

Education

Jha has BA (Honours) and MA in history from St. Stephen's College at University of Delhi, a postgraduate degree in executive development from Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, and a certificate in French.

Career

Jha has served in various key positions for both the Government of India and the Government of Manipur, like as Principal Secretary (Finance), Principal Secretary (Environment and Forests), chairman of Manipur Renewable Energy Development Agency (MREDA), principal secretary to the Chief Minister of Manipur, secretary to the Governor of Manipur, and as the deputy commissioner and district magistrate of Ukhrul and Churachandpur districts in the Manipur government, and as Union Expenditure Secretary, Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Secretary, special secretary in Department of Expenditure of the Ministry of Finance, joint secretary and financial adviser in Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, and as joint secretary and financial adviser in Ministry of Law and Justice.

Jha also served as consultant to United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). In addition, Jha served as the secretary of Fourteenth Finance Commission, a deputy election commissioner in the Election Commission of India, and as Joint Secretary (Administration) in the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, on deputation, under rule 6(2)(ii) of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules, 1956.

Environment, Forests and Climate Change Secretary

Jha was appointed as the Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Secretary by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) in April 2016, he assumed the office of secretary on 1 May 2016, and demitted it on 10 October 2017.

Expenditure Secretary

Jha was appointed as the Union Expenditure Secretary by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) in October 2017, succeeding Ashok Lavasa, he was made officer on special duty (OSD), in the rank of secretary, till Lavasa's retirement. Jha assumed the office of secretary on 31 October 2017.

During his tenure as the Union Expenditure Secretary, Jha has been regarded as one of the most important people in the Ministry of Finance.

References

1. "Finance Secretary till Jan 31". www.livemint.com.
2. "Mr.Jha replaces Mr.Das". ndtv. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
3. "Govt appoints four new members to 16th Finance Commission". The Indian Express. 31 January 2024. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
4. ^ "Ajay Narayan Jha - Executive Record Sheet". Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
5. Prasad, Gireesh Chandra (26 April 2018). "Ashok Lavasa appointed as new expenditure secretary". Live Mint. New Delhi: The Hindu. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
6. "Ashok Lavasa named Expenditure Secretary". The Economic Times. New Delhi. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
7. Surabhi (26 April 2016). "Govt makes top level bureaucratic changes". The Hindu Business Line. New Delhi. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
8. ^ "Ajay Narayan Jha to replace Ashok Lavasa as new Expenditure Secretary". The Indian Express. New Delhi. 12 October 2017. OCLC 70274541. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
9. ^ "Ajay Narayan Jha is new expenditure secretary". The Economic Times. New Delhi. ET Bureau. 12 October 2017. OCLC 61311680. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
10. ^ "Ajay Narayan Jha will be the next Expenditure Secretary". The Hindu Business Line. New Delhi. Our Bureau. 11 October 2017. ISSN 0971-7528. OCLC 456162874. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
11. "Budget 2018: Whom will Jaitley turn to for help? - Jaitley's new team". The Economic Times. 22 January 2018. OCLC 61311680. Retrieved 24 February 2018.

External links

• Biography at Finance Commission of India

v t e Ministry of Finance (India)
Departments	Economic Affairs Economic Division: Economic Survey Budget Division: Union budget Expenditure Pay Commission 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) and Defence Forces Sixth Central Pay Commission Revenue Income Tax Department Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Financial Services Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana DIPAM Disinvestment in India Disinvestment of Public Sector Units in India DPE Efficient monitoring of the capital expenditure Asset monetisation and financial health of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs)
Secretaries	Economic Affairs Rajiv Mehrishi Shaktikanta Das Subhash Chandra Garg Atanu Chakraborty (incumbent) Revenue Shaktikanta Das Ajay Bhushan Pandey Hasmukh Adhia (incumbent) Finance Ratan P. Watal Ashok Lavasa Hasmukh Adhia Ajay Narayan Jha Rajiv Kumar (incumbent)
Finance ministers	R. K. Shanmukham Chetty John Mathai C. D. Deshmukh T. T. Krishnamachari Jawaharlal Nehru Morarji Desai Sachindra Chaudhuri Indira Gandhi Yashwantrao Chavan Chidambaram Subramaniam Hirubhai M. Patel Charan Singh Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna R. Venkataraman Pranab Mukherjee Vishwanath Pratap Singh Rajiv Gandhi N. D. Tiwari Shankarrao Chavan Madhu Dandavate Yashwant Sinha Manmohan Singh Jaswant Singh P. Chidambaram I. K. Gujral Arun Jaitley Piyush Goyal Nirmala Sitharaman (incumbent)
Ministers of state for finance	Nirmala Sitharaman Jayant Sinha Arjun Ram Meghwal Pon Radhakrishnan Anurag Thakur Bhagwat Karad (incumbent) Pankaj Chaudhary (incumbent)
Chief Economic Advisor	JJ Anjaria IG Patel IG Patel VK Ramaswamy Ashok Mitra Manmohan Singh RM Honavar Bimal Jalan Nitin Desai Deepak Nayyar Shankar Acharya Rakesh Mohan Ashok K Lahiri Arvind Virmani Kaushik Basu Raghuram Rajan Arvind Subramanian Krishnamurthy Subramanian V. Anantha Nageswaran (incumbent)
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• 1959 births
• Living people
• Harvard Kennedy School alumni
• Indian Administrative Service officers
• People from Bihar
• McGill University alumni
• St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni