Road Transport and Highways Secretary Aramane Giridhar has been named the new defence secretary as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle affected by the Centre .
Giridhar, a 1988 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as an Officer on Special Duty in the Department of Defence. He will take over as Defence Secretary after the retirement of Ajay Kumar on October 31, 2022.
Alka Upadhyaya, chairperson of the National Highways Authority of India, will be the new Road and Transport Secretary in place of Giridhar.
Previously Aramane Giridhar has been the Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat. Aramane did his B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and M.Tech. from IIT, Madras. He has also done M.A. (Economics) from Kakatheya University, Warangal.