The Modi government on Wednesday reshuffled over a dozen Secretaries.
A 1984 batch IAS officer and currently Secretary, Ministry of Power, Ajay Kumar Bhalla has been appointed Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Ministry of Home Affairs with immediate effect. He will take over as Home Secretary from incumbent Rajive Gauba.
Mr. Bhalla will have a fixed two-year tenure as Union Home Secretary till August 2021.
In another significant change, Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Economic Affairs, and designated as Secretary, Finance, in the Ministry of Finance, has been shifted to the Power Ministry as Secretary, while Gujarat cadre IAS officer Atanu Chakraborty has been made new Economic Affairs Secretary.
Mr. Chakraborty is currently Secretary, Disinvestment, in the Government of India. He has been replaced by a Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS officer of 1986 batch Anil Kumar Khachi.
Telecom Secretary
Anshu Prakash has been appointed new Secretary, Telecommunications, in place of Aruna Sundararajan, who is superannuating on July 31.
Another Gujarat cadre IAS officer P.D. Waghela has been made Secretary, Pharmaceuticals, while his batchmate and currently chief of the Airports Authority of India Guruprasad Mohapatra has been made Secretary, Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, in the Ministry of Commerce.
Ravi Capoor is new Textiles Secretary and Atul Chaturvedi will be the new Animal Husbandry and Dairying Secretary. R.S. Shukla is new Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs, and G.V. Venugopal Sarma will be Member-Secretary in the National Disaster Management Authority. Mr. Shukla is currently serving in his cadre in West Bengal.
Promoted as Secretaries
The government has promoted a dozen IAS officers of the 1986 batch to Secretary level in their postings where they were currently Additional Secretaries.
This is the first reshuffle in the top bureaucracy after the parliamentary polls that saw return of the Narendra Modi government with thumping majority. The reshuffle includes IAS officers of 1984, 1985 and 1986 batches.