Anuj Tripathi Appointed Private Secretary to NITI Aayog Member Prof Karandikar

Anuj Tripathi has been appointed Private Secretary to NITI Aayog Member Prof Karandikar, who succeeded Professor V K Saraswat in the role, according to a government order.

NITI Aayog's full-time Members oversee specific policy verticals, ranging from agriculture and health to science, technology and industry, and rely on their private office to coordinate with state governments, ministries and expert committees on ongoing projects. Each Member's office functions as the operational hub through which policy notes, meeting schedules and inter-ministerial correspondence are managed on a continuous basis.

A Private Secretary's role involves managing this coordination on a day-to-day basis, including scheduling, correspondence and the tracking of action points arising from meetings with state governments and central ministries, making it a position of considerable administrative importance despite sitting outside the public eye.

Professor V K Saraswat, whom Prof Karandikar succeeds, held the Member's charge covering science and technology matters at NITI Aayog for an extended tenure, during which the office built up an established working relationship with the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Atomic Energy and related bodies. The transition to a new Member typically involves the private office adjusting to a changed set of priorities and working style.

Private Secretary appointments at NITI Aayog are typically filled through deputation from central secretariat cadres or, in some cases, from state administrative services, though the order reviewed here did not specify Tripathi's parent service or cadre.

NITI Aayog itself, established in 2015 to replace the Planning Commission, functions as the government's principal policy think tank, combining a smaller core staff with rotating deputationists from various ministries and state governments, a structure that places considerable weight on each Member's private office to maintain institutional memory across changing personnel.

Prof Karandikar's portfolio, covering science and technology matters, involves regular engagement with national missions in areas such as semiconductors, space technology and biotechnology, requiring the private office to track parallel developments across multiple ministries and coordinate meeting schedules that often involve senior scientists and industry representatives alongside government officials.

The appointment reflects the routine process by which NITI Aayog staffs Members' offices as new Members take charge, ensuring administrative continuity even as the substantive policy focus of a given Member's portfolio may shift with a change in personnel.