Piyush Goyal takes interim charge of finance ministry ahead of interim budget

The government on Wednesday assigned Piyush Goyal temporary additional charge of the finance and corporate affairs ministries in the absence of finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is in the US for a medical check-up. The development comes when preparations for the interim budget for 2019-20 are in full swing. This is the second time railway and coal minister Goyal has taken temporary charge of the finance portfolio. Last year too, he was given charge of finance while Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.