List of 11 Senior Appointments: Braj Raj Sharma appointed as secretary of border management; Rajni Sekhri Sibal to head the new department of fisheries

IAS and author of a book on cows appointed GoI secretary

THE Central government on Sunday afternoon announced the appointment of nine senior officers, most of whom being at the level of union secretaries. Jammu and Kashmir cadre IAS, Braj Raj Sharma, has been appointed as the new secretary of the department of border management, Haryana cadre IAS and incidentally the author of a book on cows, Rajni Sekhri Sibal, has been appointed as the secretary of the newly-created department of fisheries. Here below are the details of 11 new appointments:

Know Your Bureaucrat: 1986 batch IFS and new secretary (west) A Gitesh Sarma

A Gitesh Sarma, 1986 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, has been appointed as the new secretary (west) in the ministry of external affairs (MEA). An MA in political science from Delhi University, Sharma first joined the Indian Audit and Account Service in 1984 before getting selected as an IFS two years later. He served in Indian Missions in Moscow, Hong Kong, Islamabad, London etc.  He also served as joint secretary (external relations) in the department of atomic energy, government of India. His wife is...

Centre undertakes mega secretary, additional secretary reshuffle; List of 30 new appointments here

IN A major bureaucratic reshuffle, the Centre on Monday appointed 30 officers at the rank of union secretary and additional secretary. Whereas Sanjeev Ranjan, 1985 batch Tripura cadre IAS, will be the new chairman of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), UP cadre IAS Anita Bhatnagar Jain is the secretary in the Central Information Commission. Here below is the list of 30 new officers:

4 union secretaries are on leave; know who are taking additional charge of those ministries

IN THIS mid-August, four union secretaries handling the ministries such as AYUSH, fertiliser, heavy industry, and skill development and entrepreneurship, are on leave. The government has given additional charge of these ministries to four other secretaries. Here are the secretaries in-charge in those ministries:

Textiles secretary Anant Kumar Singh shifted to dept of land resources; Arun Goel elevated as culture secretary

IN A minor secretary level reshuffle on Thursday, the government changed the ministries of two union secretaries — textiles secretary getting shifted to the department of land resources and secretary, culture, being posed as new textiles secretary. Meanwhile, a special secretary is elevated as union secretary in the ministry of culture. Here below are the details:

India's ambassador to WTO JS Deepak’s tenure extended; govt bestows secretary rank to 5 more IAS

JS Deepak

THE government on Tuesday approved the extension of tenure of 1982 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS JS Deepak as Ambassador/Permanent Representative of India to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Geneva, from August 1, 2018 to May 31, 2020 on reemployment basis, ending speculations in Udyog Bhawan about who could be Deepak’s successor. In another development, seven IAS officers belonging to 1984 and 1985 batches have been promoted to the rank of either union secretary or special secretary. First, here’s the list:

Mega Reshuffle: New secretaries for commerce, petroleum, steel, food processing announced; List of 24 appointments

IN A mega bureaucratic reshuffle at the Centre on Friday evening, the government either appointed or elevated the rank of at least 24 senior bureaucrats, mostly to the rank of union secretary. The main highlight of the reshuffle though was the appointment of a number of bureaucrats as OSD in the ministries like petroleum, commerce, steel and food processing, well ahead of their eventual taking over as secretaries in those ministries. New steel secretary, for example, will take over only after three and half months. Here is the list of 24 new appointments:

Know Your IAS: Batchmates C Chandramouli and R Subrahmanyam — both new union secretaries

C Chandramouli is the new secretary of department of personnel and training (DoPT) and his batchmate in IAS, R Subrahmanyam was appointed last week as secretary of the department of higher education. Here below are some details about the two newly-appointed union secretaries:

Secretary Reshuffle: Preeti Sudan appointed new health secretary, Ajay Narayan Jha in expenditure, Injeti Srinivas corporate affairs

THE government on Wednesday made a major administrative reshuffle by appointing new secretaries in the department of expenditure, and in ministries such as health and environment. The orders also included debarring of an 1980 batch IRSEE officer for appointment to any post in the Central Staffing Scheme. Here below are the appointment details:

GOI Secretary Reshuffle: Urban development secretary Rajiv Gauba to be new home secretary; Aruna Sundararajan is new telecom secretary

Home secretary designate Rajiv Gauba

IN A major secretary-level reshuffle announced on Wednesday night, the Central government appointed urban development secretary and 1982 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS Rajiv Gauba as the next home secretary with effect from August 30 when incumbent Rajiv Mehrishi retires. Among 17 such new secretary-ranked appointments and lateral transfers, there are ones like the shifting of culture secretary NK Sinha as information and broadcasting ministry secretary and the appointment of electronics and information technology secretary Ms Aruna Sundararajan as new telecom secretary, an important post lying vacant. Here below is the list of 17 new appointments:

Sanjay Mitra is new defence secretary; and Rashmi Verma tourism secretary; adhoc appointments for telecom and road transport

New Tourism Secretary Rashmi Verma (File Photo)

IN A major senior bureaucracy level reshuffle on Wednesday, the Centre appointed Sanjay Mitra, former chief secretary of West Bengal and key bureaucrat in the era of Manmohan Singh’s PMO, as India’s next defence secretary. He is currently serving as secretary in the ministry of road transport and highways. Also, textiles secretary Rashmi Verma will be new tourism secretary. The government has not however posted permanent secretaries in two key ministries — road transport and highways, and telecom. Here below are the appointments of new secretaries in the ministries of defence, textiles, tourism, tribal affairs, consumer affairs etc.:

1984, 1985 batch IAS officers empanelled as GoI secretary or secretary equivalent; Full List

IN A major development in the corridors on Thursday evening, the government announced the empanelment of as many as 32 IAS officers of 1984 batch and another 41 IAS of 1985 batch as GoI secretary or secretary-equivalent. And there were some unexpected omissions in the list. Here below is the full list of the newly empanelled officers who will soon be posted as secretaries:

LLB, MBA, PhD…Know more about KP Krishnan, secretary designate of skill development ministry

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Monday approved the appointment of 1983 batch Karnataka cadre IAS KP Krishnan as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship with immediate effect. It was decided in the month of November itself that Krishnan would succeed Rohit Nandan as secretary in the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship, as Nandan is set to retire in January end. A Tamil from Delhi, Krishnan was allotted Karnataka cadre, which is why he is fluent in four languages —

19 secretary-ranked officers appointed, reshuffled; Upma Chaudhary is new LBSNAA director

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Wednesday approved the appointment-cum-reshuffle of 19 secretary level officials of the Central government. Coal secretary Anil Swarup will now be secretary, department of school education and Smt Upma Chaudhary, 1983 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS, presently in the cadre will be the new director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. Here is the full list of 19 appointments:

Secretary Reshuffle: Health secretary BP Sharma shifted to DoPT; water resources ministry to virtually have 2 sectaries for next 5 months

THE Central government on Thursday had a major round of secretary-level reshuffle, the key highlight being appointing would-be secretaries as Officer-on Special Duty in the ministry where the incumbent secretaries have a tenure of one to five months months. For example, the secretary of the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation Shashi Shekhar will retire only on December 31, 2016, but 1982 batch Gujarat cadre IAS Dr Amarjit Singh is asked to immediately join the ministry as OSD with a direction that he will take over as secretary once the incumbent retires. Also, this round of reshuffle heralds the appointment of 1983 batch IAS who were empaneled as secretaries only recently. Here are the new postings:

Drought in Corridors? No full time rural development secretary as yet; Panchayati Raj secretary to continue holding additional charge

IT SOUNDS odd, but in the midst of the worsening drought situation across the country, Panchayati Raj secretary and 1982 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Jitendra Shankar Mathur has been asked to double up as rural development secretary too, till August 24, 2016, as the government has failed to identify the right bureaucrat as the rural development secretary. This saga began on February 29, 2016 when the then rural development secretary Jugal Kishore Mahapatra had…

Secretary Reshuffle: New Information and Broadcasting, environment and expenditure secretaries named

IN A major secretary level reshuffle at the Centre, the government on Tuesday announced appointment of Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS Ajay Mittal as new secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting and shifting of environment secretary Ashok Lavasa as secretary in the department of expenditure under the ministry of finance. More than new appointments, the Tuesday’s reshuffle was more of swapping of secretaries and their transfer from one ministry to another. Here are 14 such secretary-level appointments:

Know Your Babu: New urban development secretary Rajiv Gauba and 3 of his batch-mate secretaries

Rajiv Gauba, a Punjabi from Bihar and 1982 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS will be the new urban development secretary from the end of this month when incumbent Madhusudan Prasad retires. Three of his batch mates, G Gurucharan, Hem Kumar Pande and Jitendra Shankar Mathur have also been appointed as union secretaries. Know more about these 4 Union secretaries:

Secretary Reshuffle: Ramesh Abhishek is new DIPP secretary; finance secretary Watal gets 2-month extension

Ramesh Abhishek

IN A secretary-level reshuffle undertaken on Thursday night, the government appointed 1982 batch Bihar cadre IAS Ramesh Abhishek as the successor of Amitabh Kant in DIPP, the department that has been handling government initiatives such as Make in India and Ease of Doing Business. In another development, the government decided to extend the tenure of…

Rakesh Garg in Mayaram, Takru, LC Goyal club; Loses telecom secretary's post; List of new secretaries

1980 BATCH UP cadre lAS Rakesh Garg, who will retire in November this year, has become the third union secretary serving in high-profile department to have been shifted out (or demoted?) to the ministry of minority affairs, in the last 20 months of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the first two being 1978 batch IAS Arvind Mayaram (from finance secretary to secretary, minority affairs) and 1979 batch IAS Rajiv Takru (from revenue secretary to chairman, national commission for minorities). On the secretary-level reshuffle undertaken on Friday, Garg, a mechanical engineer-turned IAS, was shunted out of the high-profile ministry of telecom possibly because of…