In a significant development, the Central government on Wednesday extended the tenures of Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan and Home Secretary Govind Mohan by one year. The development comes as the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the extension in service of Somanathan as Cabinet Secretary for a further period of one year beyond August 30, 2026, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said.
Who is TV Somanathan?
A 1987-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, TV Somanathan was appointed to the post for two years in August 2024. Now, the Centre has granted him a one-year service extension by extending his tenure till August 30, 2027.
Before joining home ministry, TV Somanathan had served as the Finance Secretary of India (Department of Expenditure) and also worked as Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). He also joined as Director at the World Bank Group, Washington, where he initially joined under its Young Professionals Program.
He has also served in various positions for both the Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu, including as Secretary to the Chief Minister, Managing Director of the Chennai Metro Rail Corporation, Principal Secretary in Special Initiatives department and Planning & Development department, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Additional Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Commissioner for Commercial Taxes, Tamil Nadu and served as the Finance Secretary of India.
Apart from this, the ACC also approved a one-year extension in the service of Home Secretary Mohan beyond August 22, 2026, that is up to August 22, 2027, in relaxation of the provisions of Fundamental Rule(FR) 56 (d) and Rule 16 (1A) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958, the order said.
It should be noted that the rules have a provision to extend the services of the defence secretary, foreign secretary, home secretary, director of the Intelligence Bureau, secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing, and a few others beyond the retirement age of 60 years.
Know all about Home Secretary Govind Mohan
Govind Mohan, a 1989-batch IAS officer of Sikkim cadre, was appointed Home Secretary in August 2024.
Before joining the Home Ministry, Govind Mohan worked as Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance with effect from 10.08.2017 to 13.05.2018. He also functioned as Principal Resident Commissioner, Sikkim since 25th August, 2015.
Prior to this assignment, Govind Mohan had also worked as Minister (Economic), Embassy of India, Washington DC, USA from 25th July, 2012 to 24th August, 2015. In this assignment he dealt with Co-ordinating issues of selected Ministries/Departments of Government of India with corresponding entities of the Government of USA; Economic liaison between the Indian Ministry of Finance and US Treasury; Energy partnership between India and US; Facilitation of dialogue between the commerce and industry chambers of India and US.
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