In a significant move, the Central government has appointed Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba as the new Union Home Secretary. He will take over the position after current Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi’s tenure gets over on August 30.
Gauba, a 1982-batch officer of the Jharkhand cadre, will join immediately as an officer on special duty (OSD) in the Union Home Ministry. This is going to be his second stint in the Home Ministry. He was posted as Additional Secretary there in 2014. He was in charge of the left wing extremism division before being posted in Jharkhand as chief secretary.
Durga Shanker Mishra, a 1984-batch UP-cadre IAS, will now be Secretary in the Urban Development Ministry as Gauba has moved to the Home Ministry. He was Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development.
Subhash C Garg, a Rajasthan-cadre IAS officer of the 1983-batch, has been appointed as the new Economic Affairs Secretary. He will replace Shaktikantha Das who retired last month. He is presently posted as Executive Director in World Bank.
Garg has also served as Director in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and Joint Secretary in the Department of Expenditure (DoE) in the Ministry of Finance.
Other Appointments
Ajay Mittal, an IAS officer of 1982-batch Himachal Pradesh, has been appointed as the Secretary in the Department of Personnel & Training. He was earlier posted as Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Aruna Sundararajan, an lAS officer of 1982-batch Kerala cadre has been posted as Secretary in the Department of Telecommunications. She was Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology till now.
Bihar-cadre 1980-batch officer NK Sinha, who is currently the present culture secretary, will be the new secretary of I&B ministry.
Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the Director General of Foreign Trade has been appointed as the new Power Secretary. He is replacing Gujarat-cadre IAS officer PK Pujari who is retiring on June 30.
Rajive Kumar, an IAS officer of 1981-UP cadre, was repatriated to Uttar Pradesh from the Shipping Ministry.