Pradeep Kumar Sinha appointed new Cabinet Secretary

New Delhi, May 29

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Pradeep Kumar Sinha, a 1977-batch IAS officer, who is currently Power Secretary, was today appointed as the new Union Cabinet Secretary and will have a two-year tenure.

A 59-year-old Sinha, whose appointment was cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will succeed Ajit Seth who has been holding the key post for the last four years.

Sinha, who is from Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been asked to take over as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in Cabinet Secretariat, it was officially announced here. He will formally take over as Cabinet Secretary on June 13.

Serving as Power Secretary since July 2013, Sinha was earlier Shipping Secretary and also has also held several other important positions in the Union Government and in his cadre state--Uttar Pradesh.

Seth, a 1974-batch IAS officer of UP cadre, had taken over as Cabinet secretary on June 14, 2011 with a two-year fixed tenure upto June 13, 2013. The UPA government had extended his tenure by a year. The Modi-government had given six-month extension to Seth in June followed by the third such extension in December last year.

The Cabinet secretariat is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister. The administrative head of the secretariat is the Cabinet Secretary who is also the ex-officio chairman of the Civil Services Board.

The Cabinet Secretariat assists in decision-making in government by ensuring inter-ministerial coordination, ironing out differences amongst ministries or departments and evolving consensus through the instrumentality of the standing or adhoc committees of secretaries. — PTI