13 Joint Secretaries appointed

The Union government on Friday appointed 13 Joint Secretaries to various Ministries. Among those who figure on the list is a Karnataka- cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Ritvik Pandey, who has been appointed Joint Secretary in the Department of Revenue.

He replaces Uday Singh Kumawat, who has been shunted out from the crucial position after a controversy over a visit to France. Mr. Kumawat is a 1993-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre. A senior parliamentarian had tweeted about Mr. Kumawat, triggering a controversy.

Mr. Pandey is an old hand in the Ministry of Finance, having served as Director (Budget) in the Ministry at the Centre, and as Commercial Tax Commissioner in his parent cadre, Karnataka. It may be noted that he is the son-in-law of Nripendra Mishra, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

More changes

Other officials in the list include Chandra Bhusan Kumar, who has been made Deputy Election Commissioner, and Vineet Joshi, who has been appointed Director General of the National Testing Agency in the Ministry of Human Resources. Mr. Joshi is a former chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

A 1990-batch IAS officer from the Punjab cadre, Anurag Agarwal, has been moved from Economic Affairs to Corporate Affairs, while B. Kishore has been moved from Animal Husbandry to Agriculture.

The orders were issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) cleared the names.