The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved extension in service to Ajit Kumar Seth as cabinet secretary, for six more months, according to a press release.
Seth is the 1974 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, and has so far received two extensions of service. This is the third time he has been provided an extension in service after he was appointed to the top bureaucratic post.
The further extension of Seth as Cabinet Secretary will come into effect after December 13, 2014, an order issued by the department of personnel and training (DoPT) said.
He had taken over as cabinet secretary on June 14, 2011 with a fixed tenure up to June 13, 2013, which was extended by a year by the former UPA government. In June, the Modi-government again provided six-month extension to Seth in June and he was due to retire on December 13.
Born on November 24, 1951, Seth did his BSc (Hons) and MSc in Chemistry from St Stephen’s College, New Delhi and also M Phil in Life Sciences from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. He subsequently also obtained a master’s degree in Development Finance from the University of Birmingham.
Seth has served in different capacities with the central government as well as in the states. For five years he was joint secretary in the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India.
The cabinet secretariat is under the direct charge of the prime minister. The administrative head of the secretariat is the cabinet secretary who is also the ex-officio chairman of the Civil Services Board.
The cabinet secretariat assists in decision-making in government by ensuring inter-ministerial coordination, ironing out differences amongst ministries or departments and evolving consensus through the instrumentality of the standing or ad hoc committees of secretaries.