After the exit of two senior bureaucrats — Tarun Bajaj and A.K. Sharma — from the Prime Minister’s Office in the latest reshuffle, six joint secretaries in the office have been assigned to six verticals from A to P and will report to senior officials including Principal Secretary in the PMO P.K. Mishra, NSA Ajit Doval, Principal Advisor P.K. Sinha and Advisors Bhaskar Khulbe and Amarjeet Sinha.
Dr. Mishra looks after the most crucial functions in vertical E which includes personnel, vigilance, law and justice, anti-corruption unit (CBI), Cabinet secretariat, Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) and ACC files and monitoring. Joint Secretary V. Sheshadri will report to him for these matters but will also report to advisor Bhaskar Khulbe for matters related to Home.
Another key official in the PMO is NSA Ajit Doval, who has been given the external affairs, defence, NTRO and NSCS.
There are now six joint secretaries in the PMO: Two Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers and remaining four from IAS.
The verticals are economy, finance, infrastructure, HR, governance, foreign and security, agriculture, rural, social, administration, monitoring etc.
Among the two JS from IFS cadre, Gopal Baglay, who has been assigned science and technology, Aadhar, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), earth science, IT, communications and digital payments, is likely to move to Sri Lanka as India’s High Commissioner.
Another IFS officer who has recently taken over is Radra Gaurav Shreshth, who is now looking after external affairs, defence, NTRO, NSCS, Atomic Energy and space.
Joint Secretary Arvind Shrivastava has been given finance, economy, corporate affairs, commerce, heavy industries, MSME, Labour and employment, textiles and steels. He will report to P.K. Sinha, Principal Advisor in the PMO, who was brought in after his extended term as cabinet secretary expired last June.
Earlier, the portfolio given to Mr. Shrivastava was being handled by Tarun Bajaj, now Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance.
Another Joint Secretary Shrikar Pardeshi will look after agriculture, social, welfare, administration and rural, PMO security and public wing (public relations). He will report to Bhaskar Khulbe for administration and PMO security and to Amarjeet Sinha for remaining matters.
Hiren Joshi, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) who looks after publicity and Public Relations (PR) will report to Mr. Pardeshi.
Recently appointed Joint Secretary Rohit Yadav has been tasked with infrastructure, governance which includes (parliament, parliamentary affairs and RTI), monitoring and coordination and resources, a portfolio earlier handled by AK Sharma, who has been moved out as Secretary, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
Besides, all Joint Secretaries have also been assigned different States in addition to other subjects. As per the hierarchy, director level officials have to report to the Joint Secretaries, who in turn report to the senior officials like Principal Secretary, NSA, Principal Advisor and Advisors.
