K Ramakrishna Rao appointed as Telangana's new Chief Secretary

HYDERABAD: Senior IAS officer K Ramakrishna Rao has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary of the state. Currently serving as Special Chief Secretary of the Finance and Planning department, Ramakrishna is a 1991 batch officer and the third senior-most IAS officer in Telangana.On Sunday, General Administration Department (GAD) Secretary M Raghunandan Rao issued orders to this effect.

Ramakrishna will succeed the current Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari, who is set to retire on April 30. He is likely to assume charge on May 1. In addition to his new role, he will continue to hold the post of Special Chief Secretary, Finance, as full additional charge.



Ramakrishna holds the record for preparing 14 state Budgets. Associated with the Finance department since 2016, he played a key role in mobilising funds for various schemes during the 10-year BRS regime and under the present Congress government.An engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur, Ramakrishna also holds a master’s degree from IIT Delhi and an MBA in investments.

He joined the civil services in 1991 and served as the collector of Adilabad and Guntur districts in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. He was also Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting from 2003 to 2016 during his central deputation before taking a six-year sabbatical to work with multilateral agencies. Ramakrishna is scheduled to retire in August later this year.

20 IAS officers transferredIn a major bureaucratic reshuffle, the state government has transferred as many as 20 IAS officers, including those heading key departments.Among the prominent changes, Special Chief Secretary (IT and Industries) Jayesh Ranjan has been moved to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). He has been posted as Special Chief Secretary to Government and CEO of the Industry and Investment Cell and Smart Proactive Efficient and Effective Delivery (SPEED).

Ranjan, who served in the IT and Industries department for nearly a decade since 2015, has also been given full additional charge of Special Chief Secretary, Youth Affairs, Tourism and Culture, and Director, Archaeology.Special Chief Secretary of Labour department Sanjay Kumar has been transferred and posted as Special Chief Secretary, IT and Industries, and Sports departments.MAUD Principal Secretary M Dana Kishore has been posted as Principal Secretary, Labour, Employment, Training and Factories.

He has also been given full additional charge as Commissioner of Labour, Director of Insurance Medical Services and Director of Employment and Training. Principal Secretary, Youth Affairs, Tourism and Culture, and Director, Archaeology, Smita Sabharwal has been transferred and posted as Member Secretary of the Telangana Finance Commission..