Gautam Sanyal is an Indian career civil servant who currently serves as

Principal Secretary The Principal Secretary is a senior government official in various Commonwealth countries. * Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Pakistan * Principal Secretary to the President of Pakistan * Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Ind ...

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...

, since June 2015. In June 2016, he was re-appointed as Principal Secretary and his tenure co-terminus with that of Chief Minister of West Bengal. He previously served as Secretary to Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2011 to 2015. He also previously served as

Joint Secretary to Government of India Joint Secretary to Government of India (often abbreviated as JS, GoI or Union Joint Secretary or Joint Secretary to Union of India) is a post under the Central Staffing Scheme and the third highest non-political executive rank in Government of I ...

. He is a 1978 batch Central Secretariat Service officer.

Early life and education

Sanyal has a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in political science, a Masters in Sociology and the later earned a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Career

Sanyal joined the Central Secretariat Service in 1976 after qualifying through the

Civil Services Examination The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a national competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to higher Civil Services of the Government of India, including the Indian Administrative Se ...

. He rose through ranks and was later empanelled as

in Ministry of Food Processing Industries in June 2009 by the

Appointments Committee of the Cabinet The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) appoints several top posts within the Government of India. The committee is composed of the Prime Minister of India (''ex-officio'' Chairman) and the Minister of Home Affairs. Originally the Minis ...

. He was also the board member of the

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is a statutory body established under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. The FSSAI has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which is a co ...

. He later served as

Officer on Special Duty Officer on Special Duty (abbreviated as OSD), or Special Duties Officer, is an officer level in the civil services in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and the Indian subcontinent. Brunei Darussalam Special Duties Officer (Pegawai Tugas-Tugas Khas) is an ...

to Union Cabinet Minister of Railways from 2009 to 2011. He retired in 2011. After retirement from the Central Government, he was appointed as Secretary to the Chief Minister of West Bengal. His appointment and tenure to the post was made co-terminous with that of the Chief Minister.

Recognition

He is the first non

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

officer in West Bengal and the first retired civil servant to hold the position of Secretary in the Chief Ministers Office. He also became the first non IAS officer in history to hold the position of

in State governments of India. In 2011, a news blog declared him as the new poster boy of India's civil services.

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

and The Financial Express rate him as top state bureaucrat in India in the article most powerful Indians for the year 2013. Many media articles consider him to the most powerful civil servant in the state in India and the "most important officer" in the

. In 2015,

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions is a ministry of the Government of India in personnel matters specially issues concerning recruitment, training, career development, staff welfare as well as the post-retirement dispensatio ...

(DOPT) of Government of India rejected petition filed by the IAS association against the appointment of Gautam Sanyal as the Principal Secretary. In 2018,

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

listed Sanyal in top 10 hidden corridor power in India.

Issues

In 2013, media articles reported that CBI director Ranjit Sinha had placed Sanyal on his hit-list. In 2019, media reported that Sanyal is in the process of investigation by

Enforcement Directorate The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India. It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Gover ...

in connection with the disinvestment of a state government company in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

References

External links

Departmental Secretaries (Archived)
''Official Government of West Bengal'' (2018)
Appointment to Government (Archived)
''Official Government of West Bengal, Personnel and Administrative Reforms'' (2015)

''The New Indian Express'' (2015) * *
Mamata ropes in officials from Railway Ministry
*
Civil Servants scramble to keep up with workaholic Chief Minister

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanyal, Gautam 1951 births Living people Bengali people People from West Bengal Indian civil servants Indian government officials Central Secretariat Service officers