Gandhinagar: The Gujarat government has appointed senior IAS officer Manoj Kumar Das as the new Chief Secretary to the Government.

According to an official notification issued by the General Administration Department (GAD), Manoj Kumar Das (IAS, 1990 batch), who is currently serving as Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister, has been transferred and appointed as Chief Secretary with effect from October 31, 2025 (afternoon).

He will succeed the incumbent Chief Secretary, Pankaj Joshi, who will superannuate from service on the same date.

Das is a senior IAS officer with over three decades of service in public administration. An engineering graduate specializing in computer science from IIT Kharagpur, he began his civil service career as the District Development Officer in Vadodara and went on to serve in several key administrative roles across Gujarat.

He currently serves as the Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister of Gujarat.  Over the years, Das has held several prominent positions, including Director and Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India; Municipal Commissioner of Vadodara and Surat; Joint Managing Director of the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC); and Additional Chief Secretary of the Industries and Mines Department.

During his tenure in these roles, he introduced a range of reforms that earned him wide acclaim, including eight national awards and a felicitation from the Governor of Gujarat for his contributions to rural development.

As head of the Industries and Mines Department, Das played a pivotal role in driving Gujarat’s industrial growth by promoting ease of doing business and launching the Industrial Policy of 2020, which was translated into eight foreign languages to attract global investment.

He is scheduled to retire on December 20, 2026. DeshGujarat