The government has named the Disinvestment secretary Rahul Khullar as the new commerce secretary on Friday.

A 1975-batch IAS officer Khullar, who also served in the Commerce Ministry as Special Secretary for two years, exits the Department of Disinvestment at a time when the administration is making plans to offload equity stake in publicly owned companies.

Mr. Rahul has replaced Gopal Krishna Pillai, who has been made the new home secretary.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sanctioned the name of Mr. Pillai.

The 59-year-old Pillai, who is serving as the commerce secretary, will take the formal charge on June 30 when present incumbent Madhukar Gupta superannuates.

Mr. Gupta, whose tenure finished on March 31, 2009, was given 3 months extension due to general elections.  

Mr. Pillai is expected to supervise the implementation of key initiatives in the MHA, which comprises the establishment of a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), strengthening of MAC and SMACs, issue of unique identity cards to all citizens by 2011 and intelligence-based operations planned against Left-wing extremists and violence-mongering north-eastern insurgent groups.