Sanjay Jaju assumes charge as I&B Secretary

Senior IAS officer Sanjay Jaju on Monday assumed charge as secretary in the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, succeeding Apurva Chandra after he was appointed as health secretary.

The outgoing secretary Apurva Chandra welcomed Jaju at Shastri Bhavan and handed over the charge to him.

Also read: Challenges galore for new I&B secretary Sanjay Jaju

Chandra, who was handling the Ministry of Health as an additional charge, will be the Health Secretary.

Jaju is taking the charge of one of the important ministries just ahead the crucial Lok Sabha elections as Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi is seeking a third term in office.

As the media and entertainment industry is trying to navigate the multiple challenges it is facing today, it pins hopes on the new team at the helm of the I&B ministry.

While Jaju will have immediate challenges in getting a hang of the industry and its leaders as quickly as possible, the industry is counting on his experience as secretary of the Information and Technology ministry in the Andhra Pradesh government a decade ago.

Jaju, a 1992-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Telangana cadre, had been serving in the state government since November 2022.

Jaju had earlier served as additional secretary in the Department of Defence Production and director of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

A postgraduate mechanical engineer and a cost and management accountant, Jaju recently completed an MBA in finance. He has worked in diverse areas such as urban, infrastructure, civil supplies, education and tribal welfare.

Jaju has been an ardent advocate of Information Technology for development and governance.

As secretary in the Information Technology and Communications department in the Andhra Pradesh government, Jaju was instrumental in launching "MeeSeva" -- a flagship initiative for delivering a host of G2C services through an integrated architecture.

The project revolutionised citizen service delivery in Andhra Pradesh and was awarded the National e-Governance Gold Award for 2014.

Jaju has also won a host of awards, including the Computer Society of India Award, Manthan Award for South Asia and Asia Pacific, SKOCH Award for Best Project of National Significance, DataQuest e-Gov Champion Award, Gold Icon National e-Governance Award for Process Re-engineering and the Stockholm Challenge Award.

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