Arvind Mayaram appointed as new Finance Secretary

1.    Arvind Mayaram appointed as new Finance Secretary

i. Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram has been appointed as the new Finance Secretary.

ii. A Finance Ministry release issued in New Delhi today said Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved it.

iii. The post was lying vacant after Sumit Bose retired last month. Mayaram, a 1978 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer, has been holding charge as the Economic Affairs Secretary since 2012.

iv. A 1978 batch Rajasthan cadre Indian Administrative Service officer, Mayaram will continue to look after the Department of Economic Affairs. He has been holding charge as Economic Affairs Secretary since 2012.

v. The Finance Ministry currently has five secretaries including Mayaram.

2.    World Trade to grow by 4.7 percent in 2014: WTO

i. World Trade Organisation (WTO) on 14 April 2014 projected that the world trade will grow by 4.7 percent in 2014.

ii. It also projected that the growth in 2015 will slightly be faster at 5.3 percent, which is 20 year average growth rate.

iii. The growth percent of 2014 is more than double of what was achieved in 2013 (2.2 percent). In 2013, the trade growth rate was slow due to a combination of flat import demand in developed economies and moderate import growth in developing economies. On the export side, both developed and developing economies only managed to record small, positive increase.