Ajay Narayan Jha, secretary, expenditure, will be the country’s new Finance Secretary, a government order said Monday.

The Cabinet’s Appointments Committee cleared Jha's appointment after incumbent Hasmukh Adhia, a 1981-batch Gujarat cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), retired on November 30.

Jha, 59, is a 1982-batch IAS officer of the Manipur-Tripura cadre.

An alumnus of St Stephens College from where he passed with first class in Graduation and post graduation in History, Jha is a recipient of World Bank scholarship to pursue Masters in Economic Policy Management from McGill University in Canada.

He holds an MPhil in public administration from Delhi University.