Manipur calls back officer from Delhi, names him Chief Secretary

According to Joshi's appointment order as the chief secretary, he will also serve as Manipur's Chief Vigilance Commissioner and Principal Resident Commissioner of Manipur Bhawan in New Delhi.

manipur government, Manipur attack, Manipur, Manipur calls back officer from Delhi, National Testing Agency, Indian Express, India news, current affairs

People from Manipur raise slogans during their protest against the violence in Manipur, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, Saturday, May 6, 2023. Express Photo By Amit Mehra

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THE MANIPUR government Sunday appointed Vineet Joshi, a 1992-batch state cadre IAS officer, as the new Chief Secretary of the violence-hit state, replacing Rajesh Kumar, who was serving a six-month extension since last December.

Joshi, who was serving as Director General of the National Testing Agency (NTA) under the Ministry of Education, reached Imphal on a special flight on Sunday, a day after the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet approved the Manipur government’s request to repatriate him to his parent cadre.

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According to Joshi’s appointment order as the chief secretary, he will also serve as Manipur’s Chief Vigilance Commissioner and Principal Resident Commissioner of Manipur Bhawan in New Delhi.

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Joshi previously served in Manipur as the principal secretary to Chief Minister N Biren Singh in March 2017. A year later, he was posted in Delhi after being appointed as DG, NTA, which conducts entrance examinations, including the CUET, JEE Main and NEET.

As an additional secretary in the Education Ministry, Joshi was known at Shastri Bhavan as an officer with multiple responsibilities. Apart from the NTA, he was handling the central universities, closely involved in giving shape to the proposed Higher Education Commission of India, while also briefly serving as the acting chairperson of the CBSE.

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The first editions of the CUET undergraduate and postgraduate were held by the NTA led by Joshi.

Known for his calm demeanour, Joshi is fluent in languages spoken in Manipur. Many a time, he could be spotted at his office interacting with visitors from Manipur in their language, which he picked during his previous stints in the state.

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In April 2018, at a farewell programme for Joshi, who was headed to Delhi to take charge as DG, NTA, the Manipur Chief Minister had lauded him as a “dedicated, hardworking and bright officer whose absence would leave a void in the state’s administrative set-up”, according to an official statement issued then.

The Chief Minister also expressed hope that Joshi would keep in touch with the state government to share his opinion and suggestions from time to time, it said.

A BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT-Kanpur, who later obtained a PhD from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Joshi began his career as a deputy secretary at Manipur’s Department of Youth Affairs and Sports.

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At the Centre, apart from the Education Ministry and its previous avatar the Ministry of Human Resource Development, he served in various capacities in the Women and Child Development Ministry, Culture Ministry, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

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