Amit Agrawal has been appointed as the new Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in a significant bureaucratic reorganization overseen by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Neeraj Mittal, the previous incumbent, has now been named as the Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Mittal has taken over from Pankaj Jain, who has been reassigned as Member Secretary of the Eighth Central Pay Commission. Mittal, a 1992-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre, has held the position of Secretary, DoT, since September 2023.

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Agrawal, who joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1993 under the cadre of Chhattisgarh, is currently holding the position of Secretary in the Department of Pharmaceuticals within the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers. He has been in this role since December 2024.

Similarly, the Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, Manoj Joshi, will be taking the position of Secretary of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, replacing Agrawal.

The order issued on November 20 announced that V Vidyavathi, the Tourism Secretary, will now serve as the Secretary for the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

 

Srivatsa Krishna, a senior IAS officer currently serving in Karnataka, has been appointed as the new Secretary of Tourism.

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Atish Chandra, who holds the position of Special Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, has been designated as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare.

The Appointments Committee has announced that the current officer will assume the role of Secretary at the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare within the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare following the retirement of Devesh Chaturvedi on February 28, 2026.

Telecom Centers of Excellence (TCoE) has entered into agreements with top implementation partners, including Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) in Ari & Umri in Madhya Pradesh, I-Novate Infotech Private Limited in Chaurawala, Uttar Pradesh, and Corpus Enterprises Private Limited in Narakoduru, Andhra Pradesh, to launch the Samriddh Gram Phygital Services Pilot. The Samriddh Gram Phygital Services Pilot is designed as an innovative phygital (physical + digital) services model that combines physical presence with strong digital infrastructure to empower rural residents.

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Three villages have been selected by the Department of Telecommunications for the pilot program. These villages are Ari & Umri in Madhya Pradesh, Narakoduru in Andhra Pradesh, and Chaurawala in Uttar Pradesh. In each village, there will be a Samriddhi Kendra established to function as a comprehensive digital service center.