Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth gets six-month extension

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government has granted a six-month extension to Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, who was due to retire in two weeks’ time.

A 1974-batch IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, Seth was originally appointed as the cabinet secretary in June 2011. His two-year tenure was extended by another year by the previous Manmohan Singh government.

Seth’s extension was announced by the government on Monday, days after it formalized the appointment of another Uttar Pradesh cadre officer and former telecom regulator Nripendra Misra as Principal Secretary to the PM.

The cabinet secretariat and the PM’s Office are expected to play the lead role in getting things done under the Modi administration and retaining Seth in the key job will help maintain continuity in the policy-making process that had hit the brakes in the last few years of UPA rule.

A post-graduate in chemistry, Seth has earlier worked as joint secretary in the textiles ministry for five years and as secretary (co-ordination) in the cabinet secretariat from 2009 to 2011. He had worked in the commerce ministry in the 1980s and had also held the post of First Secretary in India’s permanent mission to the United Nations.

In Uttar Pradesh, Seth had served at different times as principal secretary in charge of vigilance and rural development and had been the divisional commissioner of Kumaon in Nainital and the district magistrate of Mainpuri and Lucknow districts.

Seth’s term in office will now end on December 13, 2014.