Ex-IAS officer Deepak Gupta named new UPSC chief

The government has appointed former IAS officer Deepak Gupta as new chairman of UPSC, breaking away from the tradition of appointing the chief from the serving members of the Commission. Gupta, a retired IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, had on Saturday taken over as the chief of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), official sources said. He is the younger brother of former Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta.

As per convention, a UPSC chief is appointed from among the members of the Commission. It is for the first time that somebody from outside has been appointed as the UPSC chairperson, the sources said.

This time it was the turn of former Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Alka Sirohi, who is already working as member in the Commission, to become the chairperson, they said. The tenure of Rajni Razdan, who had in August this year taken over as chairperson of UPSC, ended on Saturday.

The UPSC conducts the prestigious civil services examination to select IAS, IFS and IPS officers among others. The UPSC is headed by a chairman and 10 members.

Besides Sirohi, academician David R Syiemlieh, retd IFS officer Manbir Singh, former CBI Director Amar Pratap Singh, former Navy Vice Chief DK Dewan, ex-Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal, educationists P Kelimsungla and Hem Chandra Gupta, and former IAS officer Chhatar Singh are members of the Commission.