Gujarat cadre IAS officer of the 1990 batch, Manoj Kumar Das, has been appointed as the next Chief Secretary of Gujarat, succeeding Pankaj Joshi, who retired on October 31. The General Administration Department of the state government issued an official notification regarding his appointment on October 28.
Before assuming this top administrative post, Das served as Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister and also held additional charge as Additional Chief Secretary (Home). An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, he holds a B.Tech degree in Computer Science.
Hailing from Darbhanga in Bihar, Das is scheduled to retire in December next year. Following the retirement of Chief Secretary Joshi, he is now the third seniormost IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre. The two officers senior to him—K Srinivas and Sunaina Tomar—belong to the 1989 batch. Srinivas is currently on central deputation serving as Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, while Tomar, Additional Chief Secretary in the state’s education department, is set to retire next month.
Das has previously served in the Chief Minister’s Office under both Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, marking his deep administrative experience within Gujarat’s governance ecosystem.
