In a major administrative development, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the empanelment of 41 officers from multiple civil services for appointment at the level of Joint Secretary or equivalent in the Government of India. The decision, cleared on April 21, 2026, marks a significant milestone in the careers of these officers, making them eligible for senior policymaking roles at the Centre.
Officers from Diverse Services Selected
The empanelled officers come from a wide range of services, reflecting the government’s approach to bringing diverse administrative experience into key decision-making positions. These include officers from the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax), Central Secretariat Service, Indian Railway services, and the Indian Audit and Accounts Service.
IAS Officers
Among those empanelled from the IAS are:
Vikrant Pandey (2005 batch, Gujarat cadre)
Neha Bansal (2010 batch, AGMUT cadre)
Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax)
The following IRS (IT) officers have been empanelled:
Sheodan Singh Bhadoriya
Krishna Gopal Goyal
Neetika Bansal
Vivek Sharma
Bharat Bhushan Garg
K C Selvamani
Prajna Paramita
Rishpal Bedi
Central Secretariat Service (CSS)
From the CSS, the empanelled officers include:
Anita Tripathi
Ashish V Gawai
G S Chitra
Jitendra R Gaikwad
Shobana Pramod
Anandi Venkateshwaran
Jitender K Mehan
Kanwar M S Khalsa
Pavenash Kumar Sharma
Indian Police Service (IPS)
A significant number of IPS officers have also been empanelled:
Vikas Kumar Arora
Sajid Farid Shapoo
Ratn Sanjay Katiyar
Deepak Kumar Kedia
Tarun Kumar
Praveen Kumar
Najmul Hoda
Sidhartha Shashni
Amit Kumar Singh
N Gnanasambandan
P Karunakaran
Sonal Mohan Agnihotri
Irshad Wali
C Mageswari
Indian Railway Services
From the railway services, officers from key cadres have been empanelled:
Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS):
Bikram Singh Gill
Deepa Kotnis
Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS):
Anurag Pateria
M Yelvender Yadav
Swarna Ramesh Babu
Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS)
From IA&AS, the following officers have been empanelled:
Satish Sethi
Shailesh Kumar Jakhotiya
Kartikaye Mathur
Significance of Empanelment
Empanelment at the Joint Secretary level is a crucial step in the career trajectory of civil servants. It makes officers eligible for senior leadership roles in central ministries and departments, where they play a key role in policy formulation, governance, and implementation at the national level.
The move underscores the government’s emphasis on leveraging the expertise of experienced officers across services, ensuring that policymaking at the Centre benefits from a broad spectrum of administrative knowledge and field experience.
