Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra appointed I&B Secretary

Apurva Chandra (Image: PIB)

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on August 19 appointed Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra as the Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcast.

A statement released by the Department of Personnel and training read: “The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Shri Apurv Chandra, IAS (MH:88), Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, as Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcast.”

Apurv Chandra, 1988 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Maharashtra cadre, had assumed charge as the Labour Secretary in October 2020.

Prior to this, he was serving as Special Director General, Defence Acquisition, Ministry of Defence, a position where he played a key role in contributing towards Aatma Nirbhar Bharat in terms of greater defence acquisition from domestic industry and at the same time keeping Defence Forces equipped with all its challenging requirements.

A civil engineer, Chandra obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering and Masters in Structural Engineering from IIT Delhi.

The IAS officer also spent more than seven years in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. He was actively involved in framing policies with regard to fuel supplies to industries, supply logistics, transportation, storage, and distribution of fuel products, along with work related to Natural Gas transportation infrastructure, setting up of city gas distribution companies, LNG import terminals, and allocation of gas to industries.

Chandra served on the Board of Directors of Maharatna PSU, GAIL (India) and Petronet LNG and served as the Joint Secretary of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education and Literacy from August 2011 to February 2013.

From 2013 to 2017, he was the Principal Secretary (Industries).

He also served in the Defence Ministry from December 2017 as the Director General (Acquisition). Apurva Chandra was tasked with strengthening the Indian Armed Forces by expediting the acquisition process. He had chaired the Committee to draft the new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP).

(With PTI inputs)