Rajiv Gauba takes charge as Union Home Secretary

Senior IAS officer Rajiv Gauba on Thursday took charge as the new Union Home Secretary.

Gauba, 58, a 1982 batch officer of Jharkhand cadre, will have a fixed two-year tenure as Home Secretary.

He took charge from Rajiv Mehrishi, a 1978 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer who retired from service on Wednesday.

Gauba joined the Home Ministry on June 27 and since then he was serving as Officer on Special Duty.

Prior to this, Gauba was Secretary in the Urban Development Ministry.

In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on June 21 cleared Gauba's appointment as new Union Home Secretary.

This is the second stint of Gauba in the Home Ministry.

In his earlier stint as Additional Secretary, Gauba had looked after the Left Wing Extremism division of the Ministry. Later, he was appointed as Chief Secretary in his parent cadre of Jharkhand.

"He has wide-ranging experience in senior positions in the central and state governments and in international organisations. Hailing from Punjab, the 1959-born Gauba is a Physics graduate," a Home Ministry statement said.

Gauba has also served at the Centre in the Ministries of Defence, Environment and Forests and Department of Electronics and Information Technology.

"Gauba also served in the International Monetary Fund representing the country for four years on the board of IMF," the statement said.

--IANS

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