IAS officer Amit Kumar (IAS:2010:JH) has been empanelled for holding Joint Secretary-level posts in the Government of India.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued the empanelment order on Tuesday. Notably, on February 4, 2026, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) had cleared the empanelment of 24 IAS officers of the 2010 batch for appointment to Joint Secretary-level posts at the Centre.
Amit Kumar is currently serving as Private Secretary to Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram at the level of Director.
REC Limited, a Maharatna CPSE under the Ministry of Power, marked a significant milestone in healthcare accessibility with the inauguration of the Sankara Eye Hospital in Saharsa, Bihar. Funded through a ₹11.55 crore CSR grant under the flagship initiative “Bringing Vision to Bihar,” the facility was opened to the public in a high-profile ceremony.
The hospital was inaugurated by Union Minister Giriraj Singh alongside TSC Bosh, Director (Projects), REC Limited, and other senior government dignitaries.
A Roadmap for Vision Restoration
The new facility is set to transform the ophthalmic landscape of Northern Bihar. Over the next five years, the project is structured to deliver:
In a move that aims to bring uniformity and transparency in the transfer of its employees, the Uttar Pradesh government has mooted the annual transfer policy for the year 2026-27 for state service officers and employees. The policy was duly approved by the Cabinet in its meeting held on Monday under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s stewardship.
The transfer policy remains largely the same as last year, with no major changes. Now, transfers have to be completed by May 31st. Last year, they were made from May 15th to June 15th.
The policy gives priority to husband-wife and disabled people for desired postings.
According to the new policy, Group A and B officers who have completed three years of service in a district and seven years in a division will be compulsorily transferred.
If Group C employees are not transferred to a district, they will be required to transfer their desks. A maximum of 10 percent of employees will be transferred.
The cut-off date for determining the period for transfer will be March 31, 2026. However, only a maximum of 20 percent transfers will be allowed in these categories.
For Groups C and D employees, this limit is set at 10 percent, which can be increased to 20 percent under special circumstances. Transfers in these categories will be made with the permission of the department head and the departmental minister.
The policy also clarifies that Group A and B officers will not be posted to their home districts. Group A officers holding positions only at the divisional level will not be posted to their home divisions.
In the aspirational districts of the state—Chitrakoot, Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Fatehpur, Balrampur, Siddharth Nagar, Shravasti, and Bahraich—and in 100 aspirational development blocks of 34 districts, 100% deployment will be done on all posts by every department in every case. Officers and employees posted in aspirational districts and development blocks for two years will be transferred after receiving their options.
Further, if both wife and husband are in govt. jobs, they will be transferred to the same district, as far as possible.
Parents of children with total disabilities will be posted, after receiving their options, to locations where there are adequate arrangements for their care and medical care. Besides, disabled employees and those whose dependent family members are more than 40 percent disabled will be exempt from transfer.
If a disabled employee wishes to be transferred, they will be given the opportunity to move to their desired district based on their request. After the transfer season, i.e., May 31st, transfers for Groups A and B will only be possible after the Chief Minister’s approval through the departmental minister.
The Supreme Court Collegium, in its meeting held on May 4, 2026, has approved proposals for appointment of judges to the Andhra Pradesh High Court and the Punjab & Haryana High Court.
For the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the Collegium has cleared the names of three judicial officers for elevation as judges. These include Sunitha Gandham, Alapati Giridhar and Purushottam Kumar Chintalapudi.
For the Punjab & Haryana High Court, the Collegium has approved the elevation of ten advocates as judges. The approved names are Monica Chhibber Sharma, Harmeet Singh Deol, Puja Chopra, Sunish Bindlish, Navdeep Singh, Divya Sharma, Ravinder Malik, Pravindra Singh Chauhan, Rajesh Gaur and Minderjeet Yadav.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Monday (April 4, 2026) approved the appointment, induction and extension of three officers in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The decisions include two Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) officers and one Indian Police Service officer.
Amit Pratap Singh (IRS-IT:2009), currently serving as Superintendent of Police (SP) in the CBI, has been appointed as Deputy Inspector General (DIG). His tenure has been approved up to May 14, 2028, or until further orders.
Pushkin Jain (IPS:2017:AM) has been inducted as SP in the CBI for a period of five years from the date of assumption of charge, or until further orders.
Meanwhile, Amit Sanjay Kadam (IRS-IT:2011), who is serving as SP in the CBI, has been granted a one-year extension in his tenure. His term has been extended beyond May 1, 2026, up to May 1, 2027.
In order to expedite the appointment of a new DGP for Tamil Nadu, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is going to convene the Empanelment Committee Meeting (ECM) on May 11. The commission will shortlist three names of top-ranking IPS officers from the state to be appointed as head of the state police force. The Chief Secretary and Home Secretary would represent the state in the ECM.
As the new government is likely to be installed in the second week of this month, the new DGP will be appointed by the newly elected government.
As per the Supreme Court’s guidelines, the new DGP will have a minimum two-year tenure irrespective of the date of superannuation.
It was on February 12 when the Supreme Court directed the state government and the UPSC to complete the process of appointing a regular DGP within three weeks.
But the ECM was deferred on two earlier occasions. While the first meeting, scheduled on March 20, was postponed due to administrative reasons, the second one, called on April 23, could not be held as it coincided with the polling day for Assembly elections in the State.
Once the ECM takes place, the UPSC will forward a panel of three officers to the state government to choose one of them for the top post.
The senior-most among the officers included in the panel for consideration is Seema Agarwal (IPS:1990:TN). However, she is due to retire next month, but, as per norms, the minimum residual service should be six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy for the DGP post, which is August 30, 2025, in this case.
Apart from Agarwal, others in contention are Rajeev Kumar (IPS:1992:TN), the current incumbent Sandeep Rai Rathore (IPS:1992:TN), K. Vanni Perumal (IPS:1992:TN), Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal (IPS:1994:TN), and G. Venkatraman (IPS:1994:TN). Venkatraman was Tamil Nadu’s DGP in-charge till he was replaced with Rathore by the EC after the announcement of assembly polls.
In a key appointment, the Centre has appointed Jatin Chopra (IRTS:2011) as Private Secretary to Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar.
According to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Monday (April 4, 2026), the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved his appointment for a tenure of two years and eight months from the date of assumption of charge.
His tenure will be co-terminus with the Minister or until he ceases to function in the role, or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
He will assume charge at the level of Director in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment.
Currently, Chopra is serving as Director (Establishment–Sports) in the Railway Board and as Secretary of the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB).
Notably, in February 2022, during the second term of the Modi government, he had served as Private Secretary to then Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. Following the formation of the third term of the Modi government in May 2026, he was moved to his current assignment before this new appointment.
In a significant official move just after the declaration of assembly election results, West Bengal Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala (IAS:1993:WB) virtually declared a lockdown on official files and documents for protection in the state. In his order, issued on Monday, he has directed all departments to make sure that no important file or document is taken out, damaged, or removed from office premises under any circumstances.
With an aim to ensure tighter administrative control and accountability across departments, the CS has also made it clear that senior officials will be directly responsible for safeguarding government records.
According to the order, all departmental secretaries and heads of offices have been asked to ensure that “no important paper or any file is removed/damaged or otherwise taken out from the offices.” Even unauthorised copying or scanning of documents is not permitted.
Heads of departments and departmental secretaries have been asked to personally ensure compliance “in letter and spirit.”
The order also warns that personal responsibility will be fixed in case of any deviation, and senior officials will be directly answerable for any breach involving official records.
Though no specific reason has been given for this move, officials indicated that departments are expected to comply immediately and tighten internal controls around document handling.
The communication has been forwarded to all Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries across departments. Besides, the directive has also been forwarded to the Directors General (DGs) and Inspector General (IGs), Divisional Commissioners, the Kolkata Police Commissioner, and all District Magistrates (DMs).
A separate copy has also been sent to the Secretary to the Governor for information.
In a key appointment, the Centre has appointed Aman Mittal (IRS-C&IT:2016) as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.
Mittal will be posted in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and will assume charge at the level of Deputy Secretary.
According to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Monday (April 4, 2026), the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved his appointment for a tenure up to October 21, 2028.
His tenure will be co-terminus with the Minister or until he ceases to function as OSD, or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
Retired Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer Anil Tuteja (IAS:2003:CG) has been granted anticipatory bail by the High Court in the inter-state liquor policy scam. The court decided to grant the anticipatory bail after finding gaps in the investigation and weak evidence.
Tuteja was arrested by the ED in April 2024 in connection with a money laundering case linked to a liquor scam.
This case started after Chhattisgarh’s Economic Offences Investigation and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered an FIR against him alleging offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
It was alleged that Tuteja was part of a syndicate that conspired to manipulate the excise policy of Jharkhand to favour certain liquor businesses, causing significant loss to the state exchequer.
It was also alleged that contracts were awarded to syndicate-linked agencies and illegal gains were generated through the manipulation of procurement rates and the sale of unaccounted liquor.
On the other hand, Tuteja claimed that he had been falsely implicated and was being subjected to repeated prosecutions to prevent him from securing liberty. He described the pattern as an “evergreen arrest” strategy.
It was submitted in his defence that no direct or any electronic evidence linking Tuteja to the alleged conspiracy was found, and even a diary recovered during the investigation did not mention his name.
Besides, it was also argued that despite the FIR being registered in September 2024, the investigating agency had neither interrogated Tuteja nor sought his custody in connection with the case for over one and a half years.
The HC took into account the fact that the investigating agency had done nothing to interrogate or arrest Tuteja despite the passage of considerable time.
The defence also stressed that multiple searches conducted over the years did not yield any unaccounted assets. Additionally, in parallel proceedings in Jharkhand concerning the same alleged scam, Tuteja has neither been named as an accused nor summoned for questioning.
The High Court also noted that the alleged offence primarily pertained to Jharkhand, where a separate FIR has already been registered and where the applicant has not been made an accused.
After considering these factors, the court decided to grant anticipatory bail to Tuteja and also directed that in the event of arrest, he shall be released on bail upon furnishing a personal bond of ₹50,000 with sureties, subject to conditions including cooperation with the investigation, non-interference with witnesses, and regular appearance before the trial court.
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