Daughter's “educational requirements" prompts ACC to extend VS Oberoi’s UNESCO tenure

IN AN unusual move to display transparency, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet in a recent order mentioned clearly that 1979 batch IAS VS Oberoi’s tenure in Paris has been extended because of the “educational requirements of his daughter”. Academic sessions of children are often factored in, though with a large number of exceptions while...
transferring bureaucrats, but it is a rare instance that the order itself mentions the requirements of the bureaucrat’s daughter as the reason of his extended tenure in France. The ACC is headed by Prime Minister, but in all practical purposes, principal secretary to PM and cabinet secretary take the call on appointments.
The order dated January 2, 2014, said the ACC gave “special permission to Shri V.S. Oberoi to continue in Paris for another two months to meet the educational requirements of his daughter”. Oberoi, who belongs to Assam-Meghalaya cadre, has been serving as Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO since September 2010. Now, his tenure is extended up to April 14, 2014, and his successor and 1987 batch IFS officer Ruchira Kamboj will take up her position the very next day.
Oberoi is a product of Doon School and Delhi School of Economics, and has been empanelled as Union secretary to government of India (GoI). He will now get a secretary level post in New Delhi. Oberoi will retire in February 2017.
Oberoi had earlier worked in the Union ministries of finance and defence, and held several portfolios in agriculture, higher education, border areas development, and forests and environment in the government of Meghalaya.