Prime Minister Narendra Modi has picked a Gujarat cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Hardik Shah to be his new Private Secretary (PS) in place of Rajiv Topno, who has earlier been appointed as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of the World Bank in Washington DC.
Mr. Shah, a 2010 batch IAS officer, is currently Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), since last August.
The mild-mannered and soft-spoken Mr. Shah was elevated to the elite IAS in 2015 through selection, when he was Member Secretary of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB).
After his elevation into the IAS, he was sent on Central deputation first to the Ministry of Environment and Forest as private secretary to the Environment and Forest Minister.
In August 2019, he was shifted from the Environment Ministry to the PMO as Deputy Secretary.
