In A Major Move, 41 IAS Officers Elevated To Secretary Rank

The move indicated the government’s intent of effecting significant top bureaucratic reshuffle at the Centre, particularly at a time when over two dozen IAS officers are superannuating on February 28. According to sources in the government, the move is also seen as step to align the leadership in the country’s top bureaucracy with evolving policy priorities.

The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT, in an order, said, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the empanelment of 41 senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers for appointment at the rank of Secretary and Secretary-equivalent positions in the Government of India.

As per the list made public by the DoPT, the empanelled officers belong to various state cadres including AGMUT, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and others and most of them are from the 1995 batch, with a few senior officers from earlier batches also included.

The list of officers recommended for Secretary/Secretary Equivalent include:

Keshav Kumar Pathak (Bihar: 1990)

S Gopalkrishnan (Tamil Nadu: 1991)

Surendra Kumar Bagde (Maharashtra: 1993)

Sanjay Lohia (Assam-Meghalaya: 1994)

Keshav Chandra (AGMUT: 1995)

Rohit Kansal (AGMUT: 1995)

D Thara (Gujarat: 1995)

Bharat Harbanslal Khera (Himachal Pradesh: 1995)

Satendra Singh (Jharkhand: 1995)

TK Anil Kumar (Karnataka: 1995)

Abhishek Singh (Nagaland: 1995)

Sushil Kumar Lohani (Odisha: 1995)

Dilip Kumar (Punjab: 1995)

Jaspreet Talwar (Punjab: 1995)

Rajeev Singh Thakur (Rajasthan: 1995)

Sanjay Kumar (Telangana: 1995)

MA Siddique (Tamil Nadu: 1995)

Ashutosh Jindal (Tripura: 1995)

Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan (Uttar Pradesh: 1995)

Santosh Kumar Yadav (Uttar Pradesh: 1995)

The officers empanelled for Secretary Equivalent level:

Anju Sharma (Gujarat: 1991)

Sanjay Rastogi (Odisha: 1991)

Manisha Verma (Maharashtra:1993)

Aniruddhe Mukerjee (Madhya Pradesh: 1993)

Alok Kumar II (Uttar Pradesh: 1993)

Dushyant Narlia (West Bengal: 1993)

Alok Shekhar (Punjab: 1994)

Leena Johri (Uttar Pradesh: 1994)

Chandra Bhushan Kumar (AGMUT: 1995)

H Rajesh Prasad (AGMUT: 1995)

Sajjan Singh Yadav (AGMUT: 1995)

Archana Varma (Assam-Meghalaya: 1995)

Shakil P Ahammed (Assam-Meghalaya: 1995)

B Rajender (Bihar: 1995)

Rawther Dawood Nazeem (Himachal Pradesh: 1995)

M Maheshwar Rao (Karnataka: 1995)

Radhika Rastogi (Maharashtra: 1995)

Hitesh Kumar S Makwana (Tamil Nadu: 1995)

R Jaya (Tamil Nadu: 1995)

Bhuvnesh Kumar (Uttar Pradesh: 1995)

Sanjay Prasad (Uttar Pradesh: 1995)

The decision of empanelling the officer to the Secretary level is a crucial step for IAS officers aspiring to hold top positions in Union ministries and departments. These appointments typically follow based on vacancies, seniority, experience and domain expertise. With this clearance, the Centre now has a pool of eligible officers to fill upcoming vacancies in major ministries, but this empanelment does not give any officer a right to hold the post.