Government appoints Arunish Chawla as Revenue Secretary

Arunish Chawla

The government on Wednesday in an official circular announced the appointment of Arunish Chawla as the new revenue secretary.  Arunish Chawla will succeed Sanjay Malhotra who was earlier appointed as the governor of Reserve Bank of India for a period of three years.

Chawla, a 1992 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Bihar cadre, is currently the pharmaceuticals secretary. He has been appointed secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, according to a personnel ministry order.

The post of revenue secretary fell vacant after incumbent Sanjay Malhotra was appointed the governor of the Reserve Bank of India earlier this month. Chawla will continue to hold the additional charge of secretary, Ministry of Culture till the appointment of a regular incumbent, it said.

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.