The Big Indian Bureaucrat Shuffling

In a recent move, the government has changed roles of 19 secretaries and 18 joint secretaries in a major bureaucratic reshuffle. The 19 new secretaries have been appointed in various central government departments.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) chairman Raghav Chandra has been named Secretary, National Commission For Scheduled Tribes; while Yudhvir Singh Malik, special secretary in Niti Aayog, will be NHAI’s new Chairman. Coal secretary Anil Swarup has been appointed School Education Secretary as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle. Susheel Kumar, who was secretary, department of border management, ministry of home affairs has now been appointed as Coal Secretary. Sanjeevanee Kutty, special secretary and financial advisor in home ministry, has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Border Management.

Senior bureaucrat Rajiv Yadav will be Secretary, Ministry Of Parliamentary Affairs in place of Prabhas Kumar Jha, who has been appointed as Secretary, Department Of Official Language. The Secretary In Department of Sport has been replaced by Injeti Srinivas, director-general of Sports Authority of India. Anoop Kumar Srivastava, who was secretary, department of official language, will now be Secretary, Ministry Of Tribal Affairs.

Ameising Luikham, secretary, department of public enterprises, has been appointed Officer On Special Duty In Minority Affairs Ministry. Seema Bahuguna, special secretary and financial adviser in department of rural development, will be new Secretary, DPE. Also, senior IAS officers Preeti Sudan, special secretary in women and child development ministry, and KP Krishnan, special secretary, department of land resourcesm, have been appointed as Secretaries of Department of Food and Public Distribution, and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

NS Kang, secretary and director general in National AIDS Control Organisation, has been named as Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. Rajeev Kapoor, director of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), has been appointed Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Senior IAS officer Upma Chaudhary, presently in her cadre state Himachal Pradesh, will be Director LBSNAA. UPSC secretary Asha Ram Sihag has been appointed as Secretary, Coordination and Public Grievances in Cabinet Secretariat; while Bharati S Sihag has been named as OSD, Department of Fertilisers. She will take over as Secretary in the same department on superannuation of the present incumbent Vijay Shankar Pandey. Kewal Kumar Sharma has been named as Secretary, Department of Higher Education. He will first take over as Officer on Special Duty in the same department before taking over as Secretary.

Besides these 19 secretaries, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved extension in tenure of RK Jain, Member of National Disaster Management Authority, for six months beyond November 30.