The Centre on Tuesday announced a major bureaucratic reshuffle, with senior bureaucrat Lav Aggarwal appointed as the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). The appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), according to an order issued by the Personnel Ministry.
In another key decision, Rabindra Kumar Agarwal, currently serving as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation, has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director of the Food Corporation of India (FCI). He replaces Ashutosh Agnihotri, who has been named Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The reshuffle also saw Srikant Nagulapalli, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Power, being appointed Director General of Hydrocarbons in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Meanwhile, Nidhi Pandey, currently Joint Secretary in the Department of Atomic Energy, has been elevated to Additional Secretary in the same department.
Suchindra Misra has been appointed Special Secretary, Department of Commerce, while Dinesh Mahur, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Mines, has been named Additional Secretary, Department of Defence Production under the Ministry of Defence.
Further, Rakesh Gupta, Additional Secretary in the President’s Secretariat, has been shifted to the Department of Health and Family Welfare as Additional Secretary. Aneeta C Meshram, Additional Secretary in the Department of Fertilisers, will replace Gupta in the President’s Secretariat.
Among other appointments, Caralyn Khongwar Deshmukh has been named Additional Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development; Sonal Mishra has been appointed Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) in the Ministry of Labour and Employment; and Niranjan Kumar Sudhansu will serve as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Overall, the ACC approved appointments of 25 civil servants across various central government departments. The committee also cleared in-situ upgradation of two officers to the level of Special Secretary, as part of the wider administrative reshuffle.