Inside Raisina Hill: IAS Divya Mittal's Resignation And Promotion Of IRS Officers

As one walks down the Hill along the Rajpath, now renamed Kartavya Path, come other edifices — Rail Bhavan, Krishi Bhavan, Shashtri Bhavan, and Kartavya Bhavan on one side and Sena Bhavan, Udyog Bhavan, and Vanijya Bhavan on the other. The bureaucrats who adorn the offices in these buildings decide on India's economic, social, and industrial policies. There are many tales to be told from the corridors of these grandiose buildings. We let you in on some of them here in this week's edition of "Inside Raisina Hill".

Divya Mittal’s Resignation Accepted

The Union government has accepted the resignation of 2013-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Divya Mittal, bringing an end to her 13-year career in the civil service.

According to a notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Mittal’s resignation, submitted voluntarily on August 30 citing personal reasons, family priorities, and new life goals, took effect from September 15, 2026.

Following the formal acceptance of her resignation, Mittal announced the development on her social media accounts: “My resignation from the IAS has been accepted.” She accompanied the post with the lines, “Prashast punya panth hai, badhe chalo, badhe chalo” — a message from acclaimed poet Jaishankar Prasad’s work urging one to keep moving forward on the path of virtue.

Mittal, who had worked in London before returning to India and joining public service, is an alumna of IIT-Delhi and IIM-Bangalore. During her administrative career, she held several key assignments across Uttar Pradesh and served as a District Magistrate in places including Sant Kabir Nagar, Mirzapur and Deoria. 

CBIC Promotes 11 IRS Officers

In a move to fill the gaps at the senior level, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has promoted 11 Indian Revenue Service (IRS) - Customs & Indirect Taxes - officers of the 1997 batch to the grade of Principal Commissioner against the panel year 2026.

This decision will enable senior IRS (C&IT) officers to take key leadership roles in the country's indirect tax and customs administration.

The promoted officers include Neelesh Kumar Gupta, Monika A Batra, Amandeep Singh, Amitesh Bharat Singh, Shailesh Kumar, K Ramakrishnan, Ajay, Satish Dhavale, Rajesh Kumar Verma, Vinay Kumar Singh and Bacchu Sing Meena. All of them belong to the 1997 batch of IRS(C&IT).

The Principal Commissioner grade is among the senior levels in the CBIC hierarchy, with officers entrusted with important responsibilities relating to customs administration, GST and central excise, tax policy implementation, enforcement and revenue administration.

Faceless Operational Regime For Foreign Trade Facilitation Services

The Ministry of Commerce is all set to launch a fully faceless operational regime for foreign trade licensing and enforcement under the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which will come into force from October 5, 2026.

Once operationalised, this would mark a complete overhaul of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), as the digital governance push aims to streamline trade facilitation and eliminate manual intervention across the country, a senior DGFT official said.

The official further said that the Faceless Trade Facilitation (FTF) is one of the key initiatives of the Union government, designed for paperless, jurisdiction-free processing. By eliminating manual intervention, FTF aims to enhance transparency, accelerate approval timelines, and boost ease of doing business for Indian traders, he added.

To implement the Faceless Trade Facilitation system, the newly conceived Central Processing Department (CPD) in Delhi will be dedicated to the nation in October 2026, serving as the central hub for trade applications.

Initially, 22 officers from DGFT headquarters and regional offices will be relieved by September 30 for training starting October 5, 2026. Following the week-long programme, they will join the CPD in Delhi.

ACC Repatriates Four Senior Officers With Rare "Extended Cooling-Off" Clause

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has prematurely repatriated four senior Central deputation officers within a week, while imposing an “extended cooling-off” condition that could keep them away from future Central postings for a prolonged period.

The sequence began on September 1 with S. Sharad Rao (IOFS: 2011), Director in the Ministry of Steel, who was repatriated to his parent cadre at his own request. But the ACC directed the reporting authority to relieve him of his duties immediately and asked him to report back to his cadre.

The pace quickened from September 7. Dr. M N Ajay Nagabhushan, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, was prematurely repatriated. This was followed the next day by Satya Pratap Singh (IDAS: 2003), Joint Secretary in the Department of Justice, and Ashish Kumar Gupta (IOFS: 2002), Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The three Joint Secretaries were also placed under an “extended cooling-off” provision.

While the circumstances behind each order may differ, the concentration of four premature repatriations in a single week is notable. The extended cooling-off clause goes beyond routine deputation norms, restricting an officer’s eligibility for another central posting for an extended period.

DAD Normalises All IAF, Navy Pension Cases

The Defence Accounts Department (DAD) has achieved a major milestone in pension administration by normalising all discrepant pension cases of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Navy through the SPARSH (System for Pension Administration – Raksha) online platform.

A senior official in the department said that a focused, mission-mode drive involving intensive monitoring, case-by-case scrutiny and coordinated action by the offices concerned helped clear all 1,45,182 discrepant cases.

Of these, a total of 1,12,638 cases pertaining to the IAF and 32,544 cases relating to the Indian Navy have been fully normalised on SPARSH.

The exercise has also delivered significant progress in clearing pension discrepancies involving the Indian Army. Of the 3,94,779 Army cases identified, 3,90,336 (98.8%) have already been normalised, according to the DAD.

The department attributed the progress to sustained monitoring and coordinated efforts across its pension administration machinery.