Newsmaker: Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, at home with economy and security

As Union home secretary he will be handling internal security, militancy in J&K and the Northeast

A seasoned bureaucrat and right-hand man of former defence minister George Fernandes, Rajiv Gauba on Thursday took charge as Union home secretary, after the superannuation of incumbent Rajiv Mehrishi. A 1982-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre, the 58-year-old Gauba will have a two-year tenure in the sensitive post.

 

Gauba had joined the home ministry as an officer on special duty (OSD) on June 27 after he was named the new home secretary. He had served as secretary in the Union urban development ministry before being given the new assignment.

 

Earlier, he had worked in the home ministry as additional secretary, looking after the crucial-left wing extremism division, among many other responsibilities. Gauba has wide-ranging experience in senior positions of policy making and programme implementation in both the central and state governments and in international organisations.

 

Born in Punjab in 1959, Gauba had graduated in physics from Patna University. He was a gold medallist. He had served in Jharkhand as chief secretary for 15 months before joining the central government last year. Gauba succeeded Sajal Chakrabarty, who was removed from his post hours after he reportedly had a spat with Chief Minister Raghubar Das at the CM’s review meeting with state’s civil and police officers.

 

Gauba has also served in the central government’s ministries of home, defence, finance, environment and forests, and department of electronics and information technology in different positions. He had also served as district magistrate of Gaya, Nalanda and Muzzaffarpur districts before Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar. He represented India on the board of the International Monetary Fund for four years.

 

As Union home secretary, he will be handling issues like internal security, militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, Maoist problems in central and east India, besides other issues. As CEO of NATGRID, he worked to create a network for intelligence organisations to access information from different databases. Currently, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s son-in-law, Ashok Patnaik is CEO of the organisation that has access to a host of sensitive data, including all financial data of taxpayers. The agency links all intelligence networks in the country.

 

He is known as an unassuming, low profile officer. Interestingly, though he opted for Jharkhand during cadre distribution after Jharkhand separated from Bihar, Gauba has never served in the state at any position earlier, prior to becoming chief secretary.

 

His experience in ministries of environment and forest and his expertise in finance and economy seemed to prompt the government to choose him for the top administrative job in Jharkhand. People still remember his stints as district magistrate in Bihar’s Nalanda, Muzaffarpur and Gaya from 1989 to 1996. He has been on central deputation since 1996.