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New guard takes charge at North Block; Piyush Mankad returns to finance ministry

The new guard in the North Block today took charge of office, including finance secretary Piyush G Mankad, secretary, department of economic affairs, E A S Sarma and secretary, department of expenditure, C M Vasudev.

B P Singh, health secretary, has been elected as the executive director of the World Bank. This will be with effect from August 1, 1999. He is one of the 24 executive directors in the World Bank and will represent the constituency of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka.

In addition, Singh has also been elected as the director of the multi-lateral investment guarantee agency. Singh is from the 1964 batch of the Indian Administrative Service and belongs to the Assam and Meghalaya cadre.

Mankad was till recently secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting. He will also look after the revenue department, which was held by Javed Choudhary, who is the new health secretary.

Mankad replaces Vijay Kelkar, who has been appointed as the executive director in the International Monetary Fund.

Mankad, an IAS officer from the 1964 batch belonging to the Madhya Pradesh cadre, is not knew to the finance ministry. He has worked in this ministry as deputy secretary and later on as joint secretary from 1985 to 1990. He has been secretary, department of industrial development and public enterprises.

He has wide experience in the areas of domestic and foreign investment promotion, industrial policy and development, capital markets, public sector reforms, disinvestment and issues relating to intellectual property rights. He has been on the boards of UTI, ICICI, IFCI, India Growth Fund (the United States) and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Sarma, who was earlier secertary in the department of expenditure, belongs to the IAS batch of 1965. He is from the Andhra Pradesh cadre. Vasudev had earlier served in the ministry as special secretary, banking and additional secretary, Budget. He belongs to the 1996 batch of the IAS and is from the Uttar Pradesh cadre.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Development Association, the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency form part of the World Bank group.

Executive directors of the bank are responsible for the conduct of the general operations of the bank and the board exercises all the powers delegated by the board of governors.

The president of the World Bank is the chairman of the executive directors and conducts business of the bank under the direction of the executive directors. Among the 24 executive directors in the World Bank, five are appointed and 19 are elected.

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