ONE RANK ONE PENSION SOON, FILE WITH FINANCE MINISTRY, SAYS PARRIKAR
The Narendra Modi government on Friday appointed power secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha as the next cabinet secretary. Sinha will take charge as head of the civil service in June when Ajit Kumar Seth completes his extended tenure as the top civil servant.
An official statement said Modi had approved the power secretary’s elevation with effect from June 13, 2015. Sinha will join the cabinet secretariat as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the next one or two days to familiarise himself with the new job profile.
As cabinet secretary, he gets a two-year term which can be extended to a maximum of four years under the existing rules. He will turn 60 next month and would have retired in July-end if he had not been appointed as cabinet secretary.
A post- graduate from the Delhi School of Economics, the 1977-batch IAS officer will be the seventh officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre to be elevated as cabinet secretary over the last two decades.
In selecting Sinha for the top civil service job, the PM has stuck to the principle that the cabinet secretary be appointed from among the senior-most IAS officers. Among those who made the cut on this panel were two seniormost IAS officers — administrative reforms secretary Alok Rawat and micro and medium industries secretary Madhav Lal, both Sinha’s batchmates.
Providing secretarial assistance to the cabinet and cabinet committees is, of course, a key component of the cabinet secretary’s job but there is lot more to it. He also helps coordination between different departments, irons out their differences and drives policy initiatives high on the government’s agenda.