Narendra Modi’s private secretary Rajeev Topno moves to World Bank

NEW DELHI: Senior bureaucrat Rajeev Topno, private secretary to the prime minister, has been appointed as senior advisor to the Executive Director, World Bank in Washington, a personnel ministry order said on Thursday.nnTopno, a 1996 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, will have three years tenure, it said.nnAnother officer who served in the PMO as Joint Secretary, Brajendra Navnit, a 1999 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, has been sent to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India (PRI). He will be based in Geneva, where the WTO is headquartered.nnTheir appointments is among the string of foreign assignment appointments carried out by the Central administration.nnBesides them, another IAS officer of 1993 batch and Assam and Meghalaya cadre, Ravi Kota has been made Minister (Economic) in the Embassy of India in Washington DC.nnAshok Kumar, a 2004 batch IAS, has been made Advisor (Industry and Engineering) in the Embassy of India in Brussels.nnEarlier, A.K. Sharma and Tarun Bajaj were moved out from the PMO to important positions as Secretary, MSME, and Secretary, Economic Affairs, respectively. Both have been made full-fledged Secretaries in highly important positions in the last administration reshuffle carried out by the Prime Minister.nnAfter the exit of Sharma and Bajaj, three officers were inducted in the PMO at the Additional Secretary, Joint Secretary and Director level on May 29.nnTamil Nadu cadre IAS officer of 1991 batch S. Gopalakrishnan has been appointed as Additional Secretary in the PMO. He has been moved from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, where he was serving as Additional Secretary.nnC. Sridhar, a 2001 batch IAS of Bihar cadre and currently serving in Central deputation as Deputy Director in the IAS training academy in Mussoorie, has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the PMO.nnMeera Mohanty, a 2005 batch IAS of Himachal Pradesh cadre, has been inducted into the PMO as Director. She has been moved from the Cabinet Secretariat.nn