Bureaucratic reshuffle: J-K cadre officer Rakesh Gupta is new UPSC Secy

Senior IAS officer Rakesh Kumar Gupta of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre has been appointed as Secretary, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre.

A total of 14 civil servants has been appointed to various central government ministries as joint or additional secretaries in the rejig.

Gupta, a 1986-batch IAS officer of the J-K cadre, has been appointed as new UPSC Secretary in place of T Jacob, who is due to superannuate on May 31, an order issued by the personnel ministry said.

The UPSC conducts civil services examination to select officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

Rakesh Kumar Vats has been named the Chairperson of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). He is currently serving as an Additional Secretary in the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

Senior bureaucrat Srinivas Rao will be the Chief Executive Officer, National e-Governance Division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. He is a 1987-batch officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

Rajni Sekhri Sibal who is the serving Director General of the National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) has been appointed as Additional Secretary, the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Juthika Patankar will be Director General, the NIESBUD in place of Sibal. She is a 1988-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre.

Sameer Sharma will be Director General, the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. He is at present an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Shefali Shah and Sanjeev Nandan Sahai have been appointed as additional secretaries in the Department of Consumer Affairs and Power Ministry, respectively.

Mala Dutt will be Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Defence Ministry and Sanjeev Kumar has been named Additional Secretary, the Department of Rural Development.

Rakesh Sarwal and Anjali Bhawara have been named additional secretaries in the Department of Health & Family Welfare and in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs respectively.

K Sanjay Murthy has been moved from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry as Joint Secretary.

Devesh Chaturvedi, a Joint Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training, will move to the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers' Welfare as a Joint Secretary.

The government has extended tenure of Arun Goel and S Radha Chauhan.

The tenure of Goel as Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser, the Ministry of Labour & Employment, has been extended by one year up to May 3, 2019.

The tenure of S Radha Chauhan, the Chief Executive Officer, GeM SPV, has also been extended for a year to May 30, 2019.