NEW DELHI: The government on Friday appointed IPS officer Tapan Kumar Deka as Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and extended Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief Samant Goel’s tenure for one more year. But the most talked-about appointment was that of retired IAS officer Parameswaran Iyer as the new CEO of Niti Aayog. He replaces Amitabh Kant, who is set to complete his extended tenure of one-year by June-end. Kant was appointed as Niti Aayog CEO in 2016.
Iyer’s appointment is for a period of two years or until further orders, whichever is earlier, said a notification by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). A former Secretary of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, the 1981-batch IAS officer took voluntary retirement in 2009 to join water and sanitation initiatives at the World Bank.
In 2016, Iyer spearheaded the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Mission but resigned in 2020 and joined back the World Bank in the US. Iyer, 63, was born in Srinagar and attended Doon School in Dehradun. He later went to St. Stephen’s College in Delhi. He also has a Master’s in Business Administration from the Management Development Institute, Gurugram.
Deka, a 1988 batch officer from the Himachal Pradesh cadre, is currently serving as Special Director in IB and handling the operations wing. He was also in-charge of the counter-assault during the 26/11 attack.
He, too, will have a tenure of two years. He takes over from Arvind Kumar, who will demit office on June 30 after getting a one-year extension last year. Deka is considered to be an expert on the affairs of operations, especially in Kashmir as well as the Northeast, and has been serving in the IB for over two decades.
Hailing from Assam, Deka was personally sent by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to his home state to handle the volatile situation there during the large-scale violence after the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019. Goel is the third R&AW chief who has got tenure of more than three years.