Bhaskar Khulbe (IAS:1983:WB), the outgoing Secretary to Prime Minister, has been re-employed on contract basis for a period of six months beyond 31 March 2019 i.e. the date of his superannuation.

Khulbe was in October 2014 appointed as additional secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). He was appointed as the secretary, PMO, in August 2016.

The Modi government, on Sunday, announced the appointment of as many as 14 officers to the post of Joint Secretary in various ministries and departments.

The names of the officers and their postings as follows :

1. Ms. Geeta Narayan (CSS) has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Health Research, for a tenure upto her superannuation on 30 April 2023 vice V K Gauba (CSS). She is presently Member Secretary, NCPCR under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

2. Ms. Rupali Banerjee (CSS) has been appointed as Member Secretary, NCPCR under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, for a tenure of five years vice Ms Geeta Narayan(CSS)

3. Sagar Chand Mehra (CSS) has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Fisheries for a tenure of five years or against a newly created post.

4. Ms. Rubina Ali (CSS) has been appointed to the post of Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), for a tenure of five years vice Arun Kumar (IAS:1989:HY). She is presently posted as Director in MoCA.

5. Ms. T C A Kalyani (ICAS:1991) has been appointed to the post of Joint Secretary, Ministry of I&B for an overall tenure of five years vice Manoj Pingua (lAS :1994:CG).

6. Sanjay Pandey (ICAS:1994) has been appointed as Joint Secretary & Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment for a tenure of five years vice Ms T C A Kalyani (ICAS:1991).

7. Ms. P Amudha (lAS:1994:TN) has been appointed as Professor (Public Administration) in LBSNAA under the Department of Personnel and Training for a tenure of three years vice Rajesh Arya.

8. Shantanu (lAS:1997:TR) has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Defence Production for a tenure of five years vice Sanjay Prasad (IAS:1995:UP) who recently repatriated to cadre state of UP.

9. Umakant (IFoS:1996:UT) has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Land Resources for a tenure of five years vice Sushil Kumar Singla (IFoS:1994:HP).

10. Ajay Goyal (IRS-IT:1990) appointed Joint Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs for a tenure of five years against a vacant post of JS&LA.

11. Ms R Jaya (IAS:1995:TN) has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training, for a tenure of five years vice Shri Lok Ranjan (IAS:1989:TR).

12. Jogiranjan Panigrahi (IRS-C&CE:1990) has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles for a period upto his superannuation on 30 November 2023 vice Atul Tiwari (IAS:1990:KN).

13. Ms Sandhya Venugopal Sharma (IAS:1995:TN) has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Space for an overall tenure of five years vice S Kumaraswamy (IAS:1991:AGMUT) consequent to his premature repatriation w.e.f 01 April 2019.

14. Vijaylakshmi P Bidari (IAS:2001:MH) has been appointed as Controller, URSC, Department of Space for a combined tenure of seven years vice Sandhya Venugopal Sharma (lAS:1995:TN). Bidari will hold additional charge of the post of Regional Director, SSC (Bengaluru) till the appointment of the regular incumbent.

Kishan Dan Dewal (IFS:2003) has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Armenia. He is presently Deputy High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Mauritius.

B. S. Mubarak (IFS:2001), on Friday, has been concurrently accredited as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of El Salvador. He is presently Ambassador of India to the Republic of Guatemala.

The Narendra Modi administration, on Friday, announced the selection and induction of four officer as Superintendent of Police in CBI for an initial period of four years.

Their names are as follows :

1. Jayadevan A (IPS:2008:MP)
2. Thomas Jose (IPS:2009:KL)
3. Sudha Singh (IPS:2006:OR)
4. Ashok Kumar (IRS-C&CE:2006)
5. Lalit Mohan Jindal (IRS-IT:2008)

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, on Sunday, has cleared empanelmemt of 17 officers to hold Additional Secretary/ Additional Secretary equivalent rank posts at the Centre.

Officers empanelled as AS/ASE are as follows :

1. Chandra Bhan Singh (IES:1986)
2. Vinod Kumar Tiwari (IFoS:1986:HP)
3. Ashok Pal Singh (IPoS:1986)
4. Dolly Chakrabarty (IA&AS:1987)
5. Rajesh Kumar Chaudhry (IFoS:1987:PB)
6. Alka Bhargava (IFoS:1987:AM)
7. Amitabh Kumar (IRS-IT:1987)
8 Dheeraj Bhatnagar (IRS-IT:1987)
9. Annie George Mathew (IA&AS:1988)
10. Deepak Anurag (IA&AS:1988)
11. Meenakshi Sharma (IA&AS:1988)
12. Meera Swamp (IA&AS:1988)
13. Bharat Lal (IFoS:1988:GJ)
14. Aindri Anurag (IPoS:1988)
15. Shashank Priya (IRS-C&CE:1988)
16. Ravi Agrawal (IRS-IT:1988)
17. B.V. Umadevi (IFoS:1987:CG)

Rosy Taba and Pragna Parande have been appointed to the post of Member in National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), in the pay scale equivalent to that of an Additional Secretary to the Government of India, for a period of three years.

Dr. Asha Ram Sihag (IAS:1983:HP) has been given additional charge of Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises from March 10, 2019 to March 23, 2019 during the period of absence on leave of Dr. Arun Kumar Panda(IAS:1984:OR). He is Secretary, Department of Industries.

Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg (IAS:983:RJ) was on Friday appointed as Finance Secretary. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved designating Garg as the Finance Secretary.

Garg has been working as the Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs since June 2017.

Patil Ketan Baliram (IPS:2010:PB) has been given additional charge of the post of AIG, Counter Intelligence, Amritsar. He is Commandant, 9th Bn. PAP, Amritsar.