Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth gets six-month extension in service

New Delhi: Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, who is due to retire on December 13, was on Friday given a six-month extension in service, the third time he has got it in the top bureaucratic post.

Seth, a 1974-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, had taken over as Cabinet Secretary on June 14, 2011 with a fixed tenure upto June 14, 2013. However, the UPA government had extended his tenure by a year and later the Modi government extended by six months in June this year.

Born on November 24, 1951, Seth is known to be a meticulous bureaucrat.

Seth, who is 30th Cabinet Secretary, has served in various key positions in Uttar Pradesh government and at the Centre.

Seth had been Secretary (Coordination) in the Cabinet Secretariat since January 2009.

He did his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Chemistry from Delhi's St. Stephen's College and also Master of Philosophy in Life Sciences from the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Seth subsequently also obtained a Master's degree in Development Finance from the University of Birmingham. For five years (1994-99), he was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles.

In the 1980s, Seth had served in the Ministry of Commerce and he was posted as First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations at Geneva, Switzerland, for there years--August 1, 1984 to December 1, 1987.

With PTI inputs