By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Apurva Chandra, IAS (Maharashtra: 1988) today assumed charge as Secretary in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. A Civil Engineer by education, Shri Chandra obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering and Masters in Structural Engineering from IIT Delhi.
Apurva Chandra has earlier served as Secretary, Ministry of Labour& Employmentsince 01.10.2020 with the mandate to implement the Labour Codes passed by the Parliament in September, 2020 expeditiously. Under his guidance rules have been framed for all four Labour Codes after extensive consultations with all stakeholders. The Atmanibhar Bharat RozgarYojana has been launched to provide employment opportunities to 78.5 lakh workers in the formal sector with a budget of Rs. 23,000 crores.
Apurva Chandra has also worked as Director General (Acquisition) in Ministry of Defencew.e.f. 01.12.2017 with the mandate of strengthening the Indian Armed Forces by expediting the acquisition process. Several major contracts like S-400 missile system, Multi Role Helicopters, Assault Rifles, Naval ships, T-90 tanks etc. were signed during the period. He chaired the Committee to draft the new Defence Acquisition Procedure.
Chandra has worked for over four years between 2013 and 2017 as Principal Secretary (Industries) in the Government of Maharashtra. Maharashtra led the country in attracting FDI and other investments over the period. Shri Chandra was instrumental for a slew of new policies like Electronic Policy, Retail policy, Single Window Policy to attract new Investments. The first smart industrial township under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) has been operationalised at Aurangabad in Maharashtra under the leadership of Shri Chandra.
Chandra has spent more than seven years in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in the Government of India. He has been involved in framing policies with regard to fuel supplies to industries, supply logistics, transportation, storage & distribution of fuel products etc. He was directly associated with Natural Gas transportation infrastructure, setting up of city gas distribution companies, LNG import terminals and allocation of gas to industries. Shri Chandra has served on the Board of Directors of Maharatna PSU, GAIL (India) Ltd. and Petronet LNG Ltd.
