The Central Government has seen fit to select Kaviarasan K, an officer of the Indian Economic Service of the 2011 batch, for appointment to the office of Director in the Ministry of Home Affairs at Delhi. The appointment is made under the Central Staffing Scheme and carries a tenure of five years from the date upon which he shall assume charge, or until further orders, whichever event shall first occur. The selection follows upon his recommendation for central deputation by the Department of Economic Affairs .
The Officer and His Antecedents
Kaviarasan K is a native of Tamil Nadu, born upon the ninth day of October, 1984 . His academic formation lies in the discipline of agriculture and agricultural economics. He took his bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University at Coimbatore in the year 2006, and thereafter proceeded to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa, New Delhi, where he obtained a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics in 2009 . He entered the Indian Economic Service by direct recruitment and was posted initially as Assistant Director in the Ministry of Finance, where he underwent probationary training including district attachment and foreign training in Singapore .
His career in the Service has been marked by a succession of staff and analytical appointments. He served as Assistant Director in the Department of Consumer Affairs, where his duties concerned the monitoring of prices of essential commodities and the formulation of policy interventions for their management. He was thereafter appointed Assistant Adviser in the Directorate of Economics and Statistics under the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, where he examined the reports of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices upon the Kharif and Rabi price policy and prepared notes for the consideration of the Cabinet upon matters relating to minimum support prices .
He has likewise served upon the personal staff of Ministers. He was Additional Private Secretary to the Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping from October 2016 unto September 2017, and thereafter Additional Private Secretary to the Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping from September 2017 unto June 2019 . In these capacities his duties included the examination of files, the briefing of the Minister, accompaniment upon official tours, the preparation of speeches, and the drafting of notes upon diverse issues.
More recently he has been serving as Deputy Director, and subsequently as Joint Director and Additional Economic Adviser, in the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance, where his responsibilities have concerned matters relating to multilateral institutions such as the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank . At the time of his selection for the present appointment he was serving as Additional Economic Adviser in the Directorate of Economics and Statistics under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare .
The Terms of the Appointment
The order of appointment has been communicated by the Department of Personnel and Training to the Department of Economic Affairs, with a direction that the officer be relieved of his present duties without delay so that he may proceed to take up his new charge. It is stipulated that he must assume office within three weeks of the date of the order; and should he fail to do so within the time appointed, proceedings for debarment under the Central Staffing Scheme may be set in motion . The Ministry of Home Affairs has been requested to furnish a copy of the appointment notification once it is issued .
The particular division or desk within the Ministry of Home Affairs to which Kaviarasan shall be assigned has not been specified in the order; his precise responsibilities shall be determined by the Ministry in due course . What is certain is that he enters a ministry whose charge encompasses the maintenance of internal security, the administration of Union Territories, disaster management, and the coordination of the Union’s relations with the States—a portfolio of no small weight in the governance of the Republic.
The Significance of the Appointment
The Central Staffing Scheme, under whose aegis this appointment is made, is an arrangement of long standing whereby officers of the All India Services and of the participating Group A services are selected for tenure appointments at the levels of Deputy Secretary, Director, Joint Secretary, and above in the ministries and departments of the Government of India .
Such deputation is intended to bring to the Centre the experience of officers seasoned in the analysis and administration of the States and of the economic services, while affording them a wider view of national governance.
For an officer of the Indian Economic Service, whose training lies in the analysis of economic policy and the management of fiscal and developmental matters, a posting to the Ministry of Home Affairs represents a broadening of experience into the domain of internal administration and security.
The five-year tenure, subject to the customary condition of “until further orders,” affords a term of sufficient length for the officer to acquaint himself with the workings of the Ministry and to contribute to its deliberations with the perspective of one trained in economic analysis.
The appointment is one among several recent placements under the Central Staffing Scheme, whereby officers from the various services are drawn into the machinery of the Union. For Kaviarasan, it represents the translation of a career spent largely in economic analysis and ministerial staff work to the broader theatre of national administration. He is expected to assume his new duties in Delhi within the prescribed period, there to take up the responsibilities of Director in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
