Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi (IAS) assumes charge as MNRE Secretary

New Delhi: Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi (IAS) has assumed charge as Secretary in the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) on Monday. Prior to this appointment, Chaturvedi was serving as Additional Chief Secretary and Additional Secretary (Climate Change Department) at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of Jharkhand. Chaturvedi is a 1987 batch IAS officer and belongs to the Jharkhand cadre. The MNRE Secretary position was earlier held by Anand Kumar (IAS). Kumar has now taken charge as Secretary in the Ministry of Culture. Before Chaturvedi assumed charge of the post, Power Secretary Sanjeev Nandan Sahai had been holding additional charge as MNRE Secretary since May 4.

According to a press release from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, after formally taking over the charge of the post, Chaturvedi met senior officers of the ministry and took stock of the work and issues.

Educational background

Chaturvedi is B Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT- Kanpur. He holds a post-graduate diploma in International Development from Harvard University (USA).  

Chaturvedi is a senior bureaucrat and has worked at various important positions in the state government of Jharkhand and the Central government, including at field and policy-level. He had also worked as Joint Secretary or equivalent in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Department of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. He has extensive experience of working in other departments like the Planning Commission, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions. Chaturvedi has also undergone training in Financial Management, Community Mobilisation, and Participatory Management Techniques.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is a ministry of the government that is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual property protection, and international cooperation, promotion, and coordination in renewable energy sources such as wind power, small hydro, biogas, and solar power.

The broad aim of the ministry is to develop and deploy new and renewable energy for supplementing the energy requirements of India. The ministry is currently headed by RK Singh, a Minister of State (Independent Charge). According to the ministry's 2016-17 annual report, India has made significant advances in several renewable energy sectors which include, solar energy, wind power, and hydroelectricity.