Bhaskar Khulbe appointed Addl Secretary in PMO

Senior IAS officer Bhaskar Khulbe has been appointed Additional Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Khulbe, a 1983 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, is presently working at the same level in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), according to an official order.

He has been appointed in place of R Ramanujam, who was working as Secretary in the PMO, and has retired after completion of his extended tenure.

Ramanujam, a 1979-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, had joined as Additional Secretary in the PMO on September 1, 2011. He became Secretary in the PMO on November 1, 2013. He worked in the PMO between 1997 and 2000, with former Prime Ministers I K Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He was given three-month extension till last month after his superannuation.

Earlier, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet-led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on June 18 cancelled the appointment of IAS officer Rajiv Nayan Choubey as Additional Secretary in the PMO.

Choubey, a 1981-batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, was appointed in the PMO on June 14. No reason was given in an order issued by the DoPT cancelling his appointment.

The new posting was necessitated after Shatrughna Singh was moved out of the PMO to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

Singh, a 1983-batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS officer, had joined the PMO in 2010 as a joint secretary. He was later made Additional Secretary in the PMO.