Senior IAS officer Ajay Kumar Bhalla was appointed as the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). Bhalla, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, is presently additional secretary in the commerce ministry.

• He has been appointed to the post in place of Anup Wadhawan, who has been appointed as additional secretary in the commerce ministry, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training.
• The DGFT is entrusted with responsibilities for formulating and implementing the foreign trade policy with the main objective of promoting India’s exports.
• Another senior bureaucrat Inder Jit Singh has been appointed as additional secretary in the commerce ministry. He is presently working in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

DGFT

• Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) organisation is an attached office of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and is headed by Director General of Foreign Trade.
• Right from its inception till 1991, when liberalization in the economic policies of the Government took place, this organization has been essentially involved in the regulation and promotion of foreign trade through regulation.
• Keeping in line with liberalization and globalization and the overall objective of increasing of exports, DGFT has since been assigned the role of “facilitator”.
• The shift was from prohibition and control of imports/exports to promotion and facilitation of exports/imports, keeping in view the interests of the country.