Ladakh administration flags IAS officer over Pashmina co-op, seeks MHA action
The Ladakh Administration has officially reported a major conflict of interest involving 2010-batch IAS officer G Prasanna Ramaswamy to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
They have asked for action because he founded and led a cooperative society that later received significant Government and private funding while promoting Ladakh’s Pashmina fibre.
In a letter dated July 30, 2026, the General Administration Department informed the Additional Secretary (JKL), Ministry of Home Affairs, that records for the “Looms of Ladakh Women Cooperative Society Ltd” show several irregularities.
The society was registered while Ramaswamy was Registrar of Cooperative Societies, and documents list both him and his wife, Abhilasha Bahuguna, as co-founders.
The Articles of Association made the District Collector of Leh the default Chairman. Since Ramaswamy held this post from 2015 to 2017, he became Chairman of the society. Department records do not show that he got approval from the right authority for this role.
This missing approval is at the heart of the conflict-of-interest claim, since he was both regulating and leading a cooperative he and his wife started.
The society later received grants and support from both Government and private sources, including financial help from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and funding from various Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Official letters say the amount was “lakhs of rupees,” but exact figures have not been shared.
More concerns came up when the society applied to register “Ladakh Pashmina Textiles” for Geographical Indication status. The application said it had approval from the Director of Industries, but records show this approval was never given.
An Examination Report from the Geographical Indications Registry on September 11, 2025, suggested creating a broader institutional framework and pointed out issues that needed to be fixed before the application could move forward.
PT Rudra Goud, IAS, Administrative Secretary of the General Administration Department, signed the letter and sent these details to the Ministry “for its kind consideration and for such action as may be deemed appropriate.” Copies were also sent to the Administrative Secretaries of the Industries & Commerce and Cooperative Departments of the UT.
This case raises important questions about how institutions work in a sensitive border area, where Government support for local jobs, especially women’s cooperatives linked to Pashmina, matters for both the economy and local pride.
When an officer is regulator, founder, and beneficiary, there is a real risk of favouritism, weak oversight, and loss of public trust. The ongoing funding of the society after registration shows why a full investigation is needed to check if civil servant rules about cooperatives were followed.
Ramaswamy is now posted in Jammu and Kashmir. The Ministry of Home Affairs has not yet said what action it will take or when. By sending all the documents to the central ministry, the UT Administration shows it is taking the issue seriously.
This situation highlights problems in the process when one person holds several roles connected to the same cooperative. The steps from registration to chairmanship to GI application suggest a pattern that needs outside review, not just an internal fix.
