{"id":47846,"date":"2026-08-11T11:54:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/who-is-deepti-gaur-mukerjee-the-ias-officer-named-indias-new-higher-education-secretary\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T11:54:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:24:05","slug":"who-is-deepti-gaur-mukerjee-the-ias-officer-named-indias-new-higher-education-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/who-is-deepti-gaur-mukerjee-the-ias-officer-named-indias-new-higher-education-secretary\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Deepti Gaur Mukerjee? The IAS officer named India’s new Higher Education Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Mukerjee will now succeed Vineet Joshi, who was last month appointed as secretary, Panchayati Raj (File photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In a late-night order issued Monday, the Union government appointed Deepti Gaur Mukerjee, a 1993-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS<\/a>) officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, as the new Higher Education Secretary. The order came from the Department of Personnel and Training and marks a partial modification of an appointment made barely three weeks earlier.That earlier appointment belonged to Naresh Pal Gangwar, a 1994-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre. It was placed in abeyance after sustained public criticism.<\/p>\n

Why Gangwar’s appointment did not survive<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Gangwar was serving as Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, when he was first named to head higher education. The appointment drew immediate scrutiny on social media, not for his record in that post, but for a subsidy his family received years earlier.According to TNN, three of Gangwar’s family members, his mother, wife and son, collectively received over Rs 1 crore under a National Horticulture Board (NHB) scheme for commercial cucumber cultivation. The scheme, run under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, is meant to support small and marginal farmers taking up commercial horticulture.The last tranche of the subsidy was released after Gangwar took charge as Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, a post that placed him within the same administrative ecosystem as the scheme paying out to his family. Opposition leaders seized on the appointment, with CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas calling it a farce on X, given that the government was simultaneously facing pressure over an examination paper leak controversy and questions of institutional accountability.Gangwar has denied wrongdoing, stating that no service rules were violated and that his mother and son do not qualify as dependent family members under the All India Services (Conduct) Rules.<\/p>\n

The reshuffle, department by department<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

The order issued Monday night does not stop at higher education. It resets a chain of postings across five departments.<\/p>\n

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