Pandey was already the Secretary, Department of Investment & Public Asset Management (DIPAM), when he was given additional charge of Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises (DPEs) on August 1, after 1988-batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS officer Ali Raza Rizvi retired from the services. 

Then on August 30, he was appointed Finance Secretary (designate) in the Ministry of Finance, following the elevation of T V Somanathan, the 1987-batch Tamil Nadu-cadre IAS officer as the Cabinet Secretary of India. 

Now, Pandey has been given one more additional charge — Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) — after Vivek Joshi, the 1989-batch Haryana cadre IAS officer was relieved to take over as Chief Secretary of his home cadre state. 

It is interesting to note that Pandey has been the longest-serving secretary in charge of DIPAM, a department that was first crafted as the Department of Disinvestment under former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. It is to his credit that he has successfully steered the sale of the ailing national carrier Air India, which had continued to bleed the exchequer till its divestment to the Tata Group, a process that was completed in January 2022.

The office of the Secretary, DoPT, appears to be jinxed, ever since 1988-batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer S Radha Chauhan superannuated on June 30, 2024. After she left office, the government decided to assign the job to then Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, a 1984-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IAS officer. But when in August, Bhalla completed his extended tenure as the Home Secretary, Joshi was appointed as full-fledged DoPT Secretary. 

Joshi was shifted from the Ministry of Finance, where he was the Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS). Interestingly, several officers in the DFS, who have come to the department on deputation from different state-owned scheduled commercial banks and public sector insurance companies, claimed that their boss had “now become the HR head of the government”. 

But Joshi remained in office for only nine weeks, after he was repatriated to his home cadre to take charge as Haryana Chief Secretary. Once again, the DoPT has to function with an ad-hoc secretary, a situation it has been under since Chauhan's retirement. 

For Pandey, handling four big responsibilities simultaneously is something rare for a Union Secretary. At the same time, it's an opportunity for the officer to explore and climb the ladder within the perceived steel-frame of India.