INDIA – India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has tapped Sudhansh Pant as the new Union Health Secretary following the exit of Rajesh Bhushan, whose term ends on 31st July 2023.
According to an official order Issued by the Government of India, Sudhansh Pant has been appointed as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Department of Health and Family Welfare.
He will join as an Officer on Special Duty at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – in the rank and pay of Secretary to the Government of India – with effect on 1st August 2023.
Pant has held a senior post in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), which is the administrative arm of the All India Services under the Government of India, since 1991.
Prior to his new stint, Pant served as the Union Secretary in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) for less than one year.
He will be succeeded by T K Ramachandran, a Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer and the current Chairman of V O Chidambaranar Port Authority, who was appointed on 1st February 2023.
The IAS officer also served as Principal Secretary in the Forest and Environment Department under the Government of India.
Moreover, Sudhansh Pant was placed under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to oversee VOVID-19 management during the early stage of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Pant’s appointment comes as a reshuffle in the Union Council of Ministers is gaining ground in the Government of India following the retirement of incumbent secretaries.
Chanchal Kumar, the current Managing Director of National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd., has been roped in as an Officer on Special Duty at the Ministry of Civil Aviation under the Government of India.
In similar news, S Gopalakrishnan, Special Secretary in the Department of Health and Family Welfare, has been appointed as the new Director General of the National Productivity Council, replacing Sundeep Kumar Nayak.
A total of 15 senior bureaucrats have been appointed in different Central Government Departments as part of the cabinet reshuffle.
In the wake of the top-level bureaucratic reshuffle, IAS Officer Pant will take up his new role as Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare upon the retirement of Rajesh Bhushan.
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