Centre Appoints 27 Senior Officers in Major Bureaucratic Reshuffle

The Centre has approved 27 appointments of civil servants to joint secretary-level and equivalent posts across ministries, departments and government institutions as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle announced on October 10.

Prakash Rajpurohit, a 2010-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Rajasthan cadre, has been appointed Deputy Election Commissioner until April 8, 2030, replacing Sanjay Kumar. Rajpurohit previously served as joint secretary in the Department of Defence Production.

Vivek Khare, a 1996-batch Indian Telecom Service officer, has been appointed Joint Secretary at the National Testing Agency (NTA). His tenure will continue until December 2, 2029.

The Ministry of Home Affairs will have four new joint secretaries: Ravi Shankar, Chittaranjan Dash, P Manoj Kumar and Abhishek Bhagotia. Mohammed Y Safirulla K and Ritu Sharma have been appointed joint secretaries in the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

Varnali Deka, a 2009-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, will serve as Joint Secretary at the National Health Authority. Ashish Madhaorao has been appointed its Additional Chief Executive Officer at joint secretary level.

Other appointments include Nikhil Varma as Additional Director General of Foreign Trade in Delhi, Tanvi Sundriyal in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Inderjeet Singh in the Ministry of Culture. Tamboli Ayyaj Fakirbhai will become Executive Director at the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, while Rajesh Malik will head the Food Corporation of India as Executive Director.

Navin Agarwal has been appointed to the Department of Legal Affairs, Brijesh Pandey to the Department of Capital Development and M Ramachandrudu to the Ministry of Minority Affairs. Sonia Pant will serve as Adviser at NITI Aayog, while Nitin Kumar has been appointed Additional Secretary at the Central Vigilance Commission at joint secretary level.

Other postings include C Muruganas in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Rajneesh Kumar Tomar as CEO of National Highways Logistics Management Ltd, and Nishtha Tiwari as CEO of the board for denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities.

Separately, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the premature repatriation of Govind Jaiswal, a 2007-batch IAS officer, to his parent AGMUT cadre.