NEW DELHI: Following a series of appointments last month, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) now includes a total of seven IFS officers, compared to the usual three or four. In a recent order, the PMO inducted three new IFS officers and extended the tenure of another currently serving in the rank of joint secretary.
Of the PMO’s three inductees, Deepak Mittal, a 1998-batch officer, has been appointed as an officer on special duty (OSD) while the tenure of Rudra Gaurav Shresth, of the 1999 batch, has been extended for a period of two month.
Vipin Kumar, a 2013-batch officer, has been appointed Deputy Secretary, while Nidhi Tewari of the 2014 batch has been made an Under-Secretary in the PMO. The PMO already has four IFS officers currently on deputation – Rudra Gaurav Shresth, a Joint Secretary; Vivek Kumar, Private Secretary to PM Modi; and Director-rank officers Yadav Manharsinh Laxmanbhai and Shweta Singh.
Modi’s address at the UNGA and his speech at Madison Square Garden in New York in September 2014 were an indication of his thrust on foreign policy. Continuing with this focus, in the past eight years, India has hosted then US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
