V.L. Kantha Rao Moves to Department of Official Language as OSD, Vacating Water Resources Secretary Post

V.L. Kantha Rao, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre serving as Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, has been appointed Officer on Special Duty in the Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared the move on August 10 in the rank and pay of Secretary to the Government of India, with Rao set to take over as Secretary of the department once incumbent Ansuli Arya, IAS of the 1989 Bihar cadre, superannuates on September 30, 2026.

The Department of Official Language is responsible for implementing the constitutional provisions on the use of Hindi and other official languages across Central government offices, a mandate that spans translation infrastructure, language policy in government communication, and coordination with the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language. The OSD arrangement ahead of Arya's retirement allows Rao a transition period to familiarise himself with the department's ongoing work before formally assuming the Secretary's charge.

Rao has more than three decades of administrative experience spanning water resources, mining, telecommunications, defence, and industrial policy. He most recently served as Secretary, Ministry of Mines, a post he took charge of in 2023 after serving as Additional Secretary in the Department of Telecommunications, where he worked on the Digital Communication Policy and regulatory matters connected to the sector's self-reliance push. He moved to the Water Resources Secretary post in August 2025.

Earlier in his career, Rao served as Managing Director and Additional Secretary for the Madhya Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation and the state's Textile Department between 2015 and 2020, and as Commissioner of the state's Industries Department before that. He also headed the National e-Governance Division's Media Lab Asia initiative, giving him exposure to digital governance projects, and held central postings in the Departments of Personnel and Training, Justice, Finance and Health earlier in his career.

His departure from the Water Resources Secretary post creates the vacancy that Archana Varma, currently Mission Director of the National Water Mission, has been appointed to fill, continuing the department's leadership within officers who have direct familiarity with its ongoing river rejuvenation and irrigation programmes. Rao's cross-sectoral experience, spanning mining, telecom and industrial development, will now be applied to a department focused on language policy rather than infrastructure delivery, a notable shift in portfolio.

The move is one of six changes cleared in the same reshuffle, which also sees Pallavi Jain Govil move to Corporate Affairs, Deepti Gaur Mukerjee to Higher Education, and Sushil Kumar Lohani and Sunil Paliwal exchange charges at the Inland Waterways Authority and the Department of Youth Affairs. Rao's reassignment to a Home Ministry department outside his recent sectoral focus reflects the kind of lateral movement common among senior IAS officers nearing the top of the central Secretary-level roster.

The order, numbered 36/01/2026-EO(SM-I) and dated August 10, 2026, was issued by Manisha Saxena, Secretary, Appointments Committee of the Cabinet and Establishment Officer, with copies to the Cabinet Secretary and all Secretaries to the Government of India.