IAS officer Arunish Chawla is new Revenue Secretary

Senior IAS officer Arunish Chawla has been appointed as new Revenue Secretary in the Finance Ministry. Chawla is currently serving as secretary of the Department of Pharmaceuticals in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. He will continue to hold the additional charge of secretary of the Ministry of Culture till the appointment of a regular incumbent, the appointments committee of the cabinet said in a notification on Wednesday. 

Chawla is a 1992-batch IAS officer from the Bihar cadre. 

The post of revenue secretary fell vacant after Sanjay Malhotra was appointed as governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Ajay Seth, secretary of the department of economic affairs, had been assigned additional charge as secretary of the department of revenue. Now, Chawla will take over as revenue secretary.

Amit Agrawal, chief executive officer of Unique Identification Authority of India, will be the new pharmaceuticals secretary in place of Chawla. 

Manipur chief secretary Vineet Joshi has been appointed as the higher education secretary. A 1992 batch IAS officer, Joshi was appointed Manipur chief secretary in May last year. He was then serving as the additional secretary in the Department of Higher Education under the Education Ministry. 

Textiles secretary Rachna Shah has been appointed secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training, the order said. Senior IAS officer Sanjay Sethi, who is currently serving in his cadre state Maharashtra, will be the new secretary of the National Commission for Minorities. He will succeed Neelam Shammi Rao, who has been appointed as the textiles secretary in place of Shah. 

Neerja Sekhar, currently the special secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, will be the director general of the National Productivity Council under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, the order said.