New Delhi: Apurva Chandra (IAS) has assumed charge as new Secretary of the Ministry of Labour & Employment on Thursday. Chandra is a 1988 batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer of Maharashtra cadre. Prior to this, he was serving as Special Director General, Defence Acquisition, Ministry of Defence.
Chandra is a civil engineer. He obtained a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's in structural engineering from IIT-Delhi. He has a long experience of dealing with issues relating to industries while working in the government of Maharashtra and the Central government.
Chandra has spent more than seven years in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG). He has been involved in framing policies with regard to fuel supplies to industries, supply logistics, transportation, storage and distribution of fuel products etc. He was directly associated with natural gas transportation infrastructure, setting up of city gas distribution companies, LNG import terminals and allocation of gas to industries.
Chandra has served on the Board of Directors of Maharatna PSUs like GAIL (India) Limited and Petronet LNG. He has also served as Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of HRD, Department of School Education & Literacy from August 2011 to February 2013.
Chandra has worked for over four years between 2013 and 2017 as Principal Secretary (Industries) in the government of Maharashtra. Maharashtra led the country in attracting FDI and other investments over the period. He was instrumental in the framing of a slew of new policies like Electronic Policy, Retail policy, Single Window Policy to attract new investments. The first smart industrial township under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) was operationalised at Aurangabad in Maharashtra under the leadership of Chandra. More than 70 clusters for MSMEs were operationalised to make available modern technology through common facility centres. Leading industrial players like General Electric, General Motors, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Fiat Chrysler, Mahindra, Posco, Emerson, LG, Haier etc. have invested in Maharashtra during Chandra's tenure.
Chandra joined as Director General (Acquisition) in the Ministry of Defence on December 1, 2017, with the mandate of strengthening the Indian Armed Force by expediting the acquisition process. He chaired the Committee to draft the new Defence Acquisition Procedure.
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