Some Bureaucrats Do Not Retire; They Go On A Tenure Extension Roll!

In May 2025, the Modi government completed 11 years in power, and the trend has been quite evident in foreign and economic policy, national security, and ideologically significant religious-cultural government projects.

Notably, despite a few changes here and there, a number of officers have been continuing in different positions in the government since the first term of Modi dispensation; and prominent among them are IAS officers Nripendra Mishra, P.K. Mishra, Rajiv Gauba, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Shaktikanta Das, Hansmukh Adhia, Tuhin K. Pandey, Sanjay Malhotra, and IRS officers Sanjay Kumar Mishra and P.C. Mody.

Interestingly, today marks the 25th year of Narendra Modi serving as the head of a government, and the curious case of ever-serving bureaucrats gains prominence against this backdrop. 

Even those who have been given top jobs in the government during the second and third terms of the Prime Minister, as preferred officers, have been granted extension. The latest among the lot is the incumbent Union Home Secretary, Govind Mohan, a 1989-batch IAS officer of the Sikkim cadre. He was set to complete his first two-year tenure on September 30, 2025, but was given an extension till August 22, 2026.

In 2023, Mohan succeeded Ajay Kumar Bhalla, an IAS officer of the 1984-batch of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, who had served in the post for the second-longest term with four yearly extensions. Currently, Bhalla is serving as the Governor of strife-stricken Manipur.

Some Curious Cases

The most curious case among such officials is that of former Director of Enforcement Directorate Sanjay Kumar Mishra, an IRS officer of the 1984-batch. Following a Supreme Court order, Mishra had to demit the office of the ED Director. However, soon afterwards, the Modi government inducted him into the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), in the rank of the Secretary to the Government of India.

Almost simultaneously, in a separate decision, one of the longest-serving Cabinet Secretaries, Rajiv Gauba, was appointed a full-time member of the NITI Aayog. Gauba, a 1982-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre, had previously served as the Cabinet Secretary for five years, from 2019 to August 2024.

There is a popular saying in the Ministry of Finance that no Secretary here retires, and that the trend began from the days of Hansmukh Adhia and Shaktikanta Das to the recent ones, such as Tuhin K. Panday, Sanjay Malhotra, and Ajay Seth.

Panday, a 1987 batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre, was shifted to SEBI as its Chairman in March this year, while Sanjay Malhotra, an IAS officer of the 1990-batch from the Rajasthan cadre, was appointed as the Governor of the RBI, and Ajay Seth, a 1987-batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer, was shifted to the IRDAI as its Chairman for a term of three years.

Notably, in February this year, the government had appointed former RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das as Principal Secretary-2 to the Prime Minister, bringing back the 1980-batch IAS officer from retirement. Das served as the RBI Governor for six years, from 2018 to 2024.

Bureaucrats At The Helm

In 2014, over half a dozen officers from Gujarat moved with him to the national capital. More than ten years later, one of them - arguably Modi’s oldest lieutenant – P.K. Mishra, a 1972-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, remains the top officer in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

P.K. Mishra and his predecessor, Nripendra Mishra, have been the most prominent officers in the PMO. Former Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha was appointed the Principal Adviser to the Prime Minister (the post was created specifically for him).

In 2014, the Modi government amended the 1997 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act overnight to ensure that Nripendra Misra, who served as its Chairman, could be re-employed in the government. Misra, an IAS officer of the 1967 Batch, who retired from service in 2004, was appointed Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister - a post he retained until 2019.

Greater Responsibility

Soon after he hung up his boots in 2020, the Centre gave Misra the mammoth task of effectively building the politically and ideologically crucial Ram Temple in Ayodhya, as the Chairperson of the Construction Committee, under the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, and he continues to hold the position. He is also the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Museum and Library, which was earlier known as the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library.

Retired IAS officers Amit Khare and Tarun Kapoor of the 1985 and 1987 batches, respectively, are serving as Advisers in the PMO. Khare retired from the government as Education Secretary, but is known to have been instrumental in the National Education Policy, and handles the social sector. Kapoor’s domain is economic matters. But Khare has since then been shifted as the Secretary to the newly elected Vice President of India, C.P. Radhakrishnan.

NITI Aayog Chief

B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, an IAS officer of the 1988 batch from the Chhattisgarh cadre, has been the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NITI Aayog since February 2023. He was initially appointed the CEO for two years, with a one-year extension already given to him last month.

As the G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant, an IAS officer of the 1980 batch, was the face of all the deliberations and preparations that went into the G20 Leaders’ Summit hosted by India in 2023. An officer of the Kerala cadre, Kant served as the CEO of the NITI Aayog for six years from 2016 to 2022, a period during which the government think tank conceptualised or spearheaded a slew of government reforms.

Like Sanjay Kumar Mishra is another IRS officer, P.C. Mody, who struck a hat-trick in 2021 when the Modi government gave him a third extension as the Chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, making him one of the longest-serving Chairpersons of the Board. Within a few months of his retirement, the same year in 2021, Mody was appointed Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha. He happens to be the first IRS officer to become a Member of the Secretariat of either House of Parliament.  He also received an extension in this role.