Sanjay Kothari (IAS) appointed as Central Vigilance Commissioner

New Delhi: Sanjay Kothari (IAS) has been appointed as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), head of the country's anti-corruption watchdog, on Saturday. Prior to this assignment, Kothari was serving as the Secretary to the President and was replaced by Kapil Dev Tripathi (IAS) recently.

"At a ceremony held today at 1030 hrs at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Sanjay Kothari was sworn in as the Central Vigilance Commissioner. He made and subscribed the oath of his office before the President" said a press communique on Saturday.

The post of the of Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) had been lying vacant since June last year after completion of tenure of KV Chowdary, who was later appointed as an Independent Director on Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) board.

Sanjay Kothari's profile

Kothari is a Haryana cadre IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer from 1978 batch with a master's degree in Physics and master in Business Administration from the United Kingdom (UK). He has served various important positions at the state level such as District Magistrate of Gurgaon, Home Secretary at Union Territory of Chandigarh and Chairman, Managing Director, Director and Secretary of Haryana Tourism. He has also been Secretary of Revenue and Rehabilitation, Personnel, Health, Cultural Affairs and Public Relations in the State of Haryana. In the central government, he has worked in the Ministry of Tourism, Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances and Pension Departments. Since August 2014 Sanjay Kothari (IAS) has been appointed as Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel & Training.

He had spent about fifteen years in the field of tourism, both at the centre and state level and more than five years in Personnel and Administrative Reforms in the state of Haryana and for more than a couple of years at the centre. The primary concern and interest of Kothari has been in the creation of institutions, often innovative and pioneering and carrying out reforms for 'Good Governance' and documenting them. He has published more than 30 articles on administrative reforms, city development and subjects pertaining to tourism.

He has authored a book in 2007, entitled "Good Governance Initiatives and Reforms."

Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is an apex governmental body created to address governmental corruption. The Parliament enacted a law conferring statutory status on the CVC in 2003. It has the status of an autonomous body, free of control from any executive authority, charged with monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government, advising various authorities in the central government organisations in planning, executing, reviewing and reforming their vigilance work.