Know Your Babu: 10 things to know about India’s new defence secretary G Mohan Kumar

G Mohan Kumar in a cleaning drive at South Block (file photo)

FINALLY, the speculations on who could be India’s the next defence secretary were over on Friday when 1979 batch Odisha cadre IAS G Mohan Kumar was appointed for a two-year-term. An MSc in chemistry, Kumar has an MBA degree from the University of Hull, UK. More about this officer:

1. Kumar is 1979 batch Odisha cadre IAS.
2. Since September 2014, he has been working as secretary in the department of defence production. His experiences in the ministry of defence may come handy now.
3. At 60, Kumar would have retired from the government on May 31, 2015, but as defence secretary, he gets a two-year fixed term. He would be the top bureaucrat in defence ministry for two years from the day he assumes office as defence secretary.
4. In the state of Odisha, he held a number of posts such as district magistrate in Sambalpur, commissioner, commercial taxes, principal secretary in the department of fisheries and animal husbandry.
5. He served as director in Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA) between 1995 and 1999. This agency comes under the union department of commerce.
6. At the Centre, Kumar also served as additional secretary and special secretary in water resources ministry, and secretary in the ministry of steel.
7. He also had a foreign assignment and worked as an expert in United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in 2000-2001.
8. An MSc in chemistry, he also had an MBA degree from the University of Hull, UK.
9. His in-service training subjects include organizational behavior, financial management, basic course on WTO.
10. The officer originally hails from Kerala and Malayalam is his mother tongue. He can also speak English, Hindi and Oriya.