The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Wednesday approved the appointment of 35 senior officers at the level of Joint Secretary and equivalent positions across multiple ministries and departments of the Government of India. The reshuffle covers officers from the IAS, IPS, IFoS and various Group ‘A’ Central Services.
The appointments span ministries dealing with agriculture, commerce, coal, corporate affairs, defence, culture, environment, health, home affairs, urban development, MSME, power, revenue, education, skill development, textiles, tribal affairs, water resources and youth affairs.
Agriculture and allied sectors:
Chinmay Pundlikrao Gotmare (IAS:2009:AM) and Neha Verma (IFoS:2005:UD) were appointed Joint Secretaries in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, replacing Purna Chandra Kishan and Shubha Thakur respectively.
Commerce, coal and corporate affairs:
Manoj Kumar Gangeya (IRTS:2000) was posted as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Coal. Amit Verma (IFoS:2005:UD), Ujjwal Kumar Ghosh (IAS:2008:KN) and Kapil Chaudhary (IRS C&IT:2001) were appointed Joint Secretaries in the Department of Commerce. Rahul Jain (IAS:2005:MP) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Culture, defence and environment:
Kamlesh Kumar Mishra (IRTS:2003) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Culture. Shajan George P Verghese (CSS) joined the Department of Defence as Joint Secretary. Tanvi Garg (IAS:2009:UT) was posted as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Health, food and social sectors:
Hanish Chhabra (IAS:2006:TN) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Department of Food and Public Distribution. Sibin C (IAS:2005:PB) joined the Department of Health and Family Welfare as Joint Secretary. Arindam Modak (ISS:1998) was appointed Secretary at Joint Secretary level in the National Dental Commission.
Home affairs and internal security:
Satyanarain Gupta (ITS:1993) was appointed Joint Secretary in NATGRID, while Nishtha Tiwari (IRS IT:2005) was posted as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Urban development, MSME and infrastructure:
Gurjeet Singh Dhillon (IOFS:2002) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Vinamra Mishra (IRSME:2003) and Keshvendra Kumar (IAS:2008:KL) were posted as Joint Secretaries in the Ministry of MSME. Sandeep Vasant Kadam (IAS:2008:HP) was appointed Joint Secretary-cum-Mission Head of the National Critical Mineral Mission.
Minority affairs, personnel and constitutional bodies:
Shyama Prasad Roy (CSS) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Minority Affairs, while Atya Nand (CSS) joined the National Commission for Minorities. Jagdeep Gupta (IPoS:2004) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Capacity Building Commission, and Rajiv Kumar (IOFS:2002) was posted as Additional Secretary at Joint Secretary level in UPSC.
Power, revenue, education and skills:
Aadhar Raj (IRTS:2004) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Power. Shailesh Bagauli (IAS:2002:UD) joined the Department of Revenue as Joint Secretary. Sukhgeet Kaur (IOFS:2000) was appointed Member Secretary at Joint Secretary level in NCTE. Asheesh Joshi (IAS:2006:UD) and Manasi Sahay Thakur (IAS:2009:HP) were appointed Joint Secretaries in the Departments of School Education and Literacy, and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, respectively.
Statistics, textiles, tribal affairs and water resources:
Ashish Kumar Gupta (IOFS:2002) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Manisha Chatterjee (IRTS:1999) joined the Ministry of Textiles as Joint Secretary, while Vrunda Manohar Desai (IRS IT:2003) was appointed Textile Commissioner, Mumbai. Naval Kishor (IOFS:2003) and Bhaskar Choradia (IRAS:2000) were posted as Joint Secretary and Joint Secretary-cum-Financial Advisor in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Zaigham Ali Khan (IRAS:1999) was appointed Member (Finance), Central Ground Water Board. Shiv Ratan (ITS:1996) was appointed Joint Secretary in the Department of Youth Affairs.
The ACC approvals mark a broad-based reshuffle at the Joint Secretary level, aimed at strengthening administrative leadership across central ministries.