New Delhi: In a series of appointments, the Prime Minister's office (PMO) inducted five officers, including a joint secretary, three deputy secretaries and a director on Friday.
The development follows the appointment of P K Sinha as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the PMO. Sinha superannuated as cabinet secretary on Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra has also decided to step down from his post after serving as a key aide of the PM for over five years.
He has been asked to continue for two more weeks.
Following the high-profile changes, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), led by the prime minister, inducted IAS officers Arvind Shrivastava and Hardik Satishchandra Shah as the joint secretary and deputy secretary respectively in the PMO.
Shrivastava, a 1994-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre, is currently serving as joint secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. He played a crucial role in the preparation of the annual general budget this year.
In a separate government order, the ACC appointed Shah, a 2010 batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre -- presently posted as private secretary to Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar -- as deputy secretary in the PMO.
The Competent Authority also cleared the appointment of Abhishek Shukla, Pratik Mathur -- both Indian Foreign Service officers of the 2006 and 2007 batches respectively -- as deputy secretaries and Saurabh Shukla, Indian Audit and Accounts Service of 2005 batch as the director in the top office, the government order said.