Heard of a govt department promoting Yoga? Meet its new boss Nilanjan Sanyal

HEARD of the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy? As 1979 batch Odisha cadre IAS Nilanjan Sanyal is being appointed as the new secretary of the department, popularly called AYUSH, BoI takes you through this lesser known department and its new boss at the helm…
It was Narasimha Rao’s regime in 1990s, a department called Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy was created. Later in 2003, it was renamed as AYUSH with a focus on upgradation of AYUSH educational standards, quality control and standardization of drugs, improving the availability of medicinal plant material etc.
The department’s new secretary Sanyal has a unique combo of master degrees, one in physics and the other in poverty alleviation. He has also a diploma in development studies from the University of Cambridge.
In late 1980s, this Odisha cadre IAS worked with the personnel department, and later, he worked with the ministries of coal and labour. In his state, Sanyal worked as MD of Odisha disaster management authority. In the last six years, he has worked with departments of consumer affairs, and then with women and child development.
Does Sanyal regularly do his Yoga? BoI could not verify it. But there are a large number of senior government officers who passionately try out Yoga poses, some even in offices. One such example was former member of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Narendra Singh who used to regularly practice Yoga in his North Block cabin.

Unauthorized over-stay approved
The government has approved the proposal for regularization of unauthorized over-stay of 1997 batch Kerala cadre IAS Rabindra Kumar Agarwal for the period from March 28, 2012 to April 19, 2012 while on inter-cadre deputation from Kerala cadre to Jharkhand cadre.