The Modi Government on Sunday carried out a major bureaucratic reshuffle involving around two-dozen senior IAS officials, including two from Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Arvind Kumar Sharma, Additional Secretary in the PMO and who has been with Modi since his Gujarat Chief Minister days, will be the new Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Secretary upon the superannuation of incumbent Arun Kumar Panda on April 30. Nitin Gadkari, who holds the MSME portfolio, has announced a Rs 1 lakh-crore package for the sector indicating at the Government’s seriousness at ensuring at reviving key sector badly affected by the coronavirus contagion.
Another Additional Secretary in the PMO, Tarun Bajaj has now been appointed as the new Department of Economic Affairs Secretary.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, who was due to superannuate on April 30, has been given a three-month extension. Rural Development Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has been appointed as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Health and Family Welfare Department in the rank of secretary. He is likely to take over as the secretary of the department after the expiry of Sudan's extended tenure of three months.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the appointments.
While CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal has been appointed as the Secretary, Department of Education and Literacy, Rameshwar Prasad Gupta has been made the Secretary in the Environment Ministry. Gupta is currently Special Secretary, NITI Aayog. Both belong to the Gujarat cadre.
Nagendra Nath Sinha will be the new Rural Development Department Secretary in place of Bhushan. He is at present Secretary, the Department of Border Management in the Home Ministry.
Information and Broadcasting Secretary Ravi Mittal has been moved out as Secretary, Department of Sports. Amit Khare, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, has been given additional charge in his place. Khare has earlier too served as I&B Secretary.
Road Transport and Highways Secretary Sanjeev Ranjan has been moved out as the Shipping Secretary upon the superannuation of incumbent Gopal Krishna on April 30. Aramane Giridhar, the Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, will be the Secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in place of Ranjan.
While Consumer Affairs Secretary Pawan Kumar Agarwal has been appointed as Special Secretary (Logistics) in the Department of Commerce, Leena Nandan, the Special Secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will replace Agarwal.
Food and Public Distribution Secretary Ravi Kant has been moved out as the Secretary, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare. Sudhanshu Panday will replace Kant in the Ministry. Panday is currently Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce.
Secretary, New and Renewable Energy, Anand Kumar has been appointed as Secretary, Culture. He is replaced with Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi who was in the PMO during Manmohan Singh’s tenure.
A total of 10 IAS officers have been given in-situ upgradation to the level of Special Secretary in the rank and pay of Secretary of Central government, as a measure personal to the them, by temporarily upgrading the posts held by them.
They are Jyoti Arora, B. Anand, Neel Kamal Darbari, Bidyut Bihari Swain, Apurva Chandra, Rajiv Bansal, Ali Raza Rizvi, Praveen Kr. Srivastava, Arvind Singh and Indevar Pandey