MUMBAI: The Indian government, in a crucial move, has announced that the senior Bihar cadre IAS officer and culture secretary N K Sinha will take over as the secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting. Sinha will take over in the ministry headed by union minister M Venkaiah Naidu while the incumbent Ajay Mittal will be shifted as secretary DoPT, PTI reported.

Fifteen new secretaries have been appointed to various central departments as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle. Subhash Chandra Garg, who is the executive director of the World Bank, will take over as the secretary of the department of economic affairs from Shaktikanta Das -- who has retired.

The other major appointments, approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, include Aruna Sundarajan, a Kerala cadre IAS officer, as the telecom secretary, and Ajay Kumar Bhalla, an Assam-Meghalaya cadre IAS officer, as Power Secretary. While Sundarajan was Secretary, Electronics and Information Technology, Bhalla is currently Director-General, Foreign Trade.

The committee also gave its nod for the appointment of Rajiv Gauba, a Jharkhand cadre IAS officer, as the next Home Secretary. He will take over from Rajiv Mehrishi on August 30. Until then Gauba will serve as Officer on Special Duty in the Home Ministry.

Meanwhile, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, an Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer, will be the new Electronics & IT Secretary. He was earlier Additional Secretary in the Petroleum Ministry. Yudhvir Singh Malik, a 1983 Haryana batch IAS officer, will be the new Road Transport and Highways Secretary. He was earlier NHAI’s Chairman.