Appointments of two other Officers on Special Duty (OSD), for Minister of State for Civil Aviation P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Railway Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, too, were cleared.
The names were cleared by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Jha, a 2002-batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, has been posted for a period of four years.
V Appa Rao, an Indian Railways Stores Service officer of 1993-cadre, was appointed as OSD to Raju, who holds independent charge of the Civil Aviation Ministry. He will serve as OSD till September 7, 2017, or till further orders, it said.