Cabinet, Ministries, and Agencies – Cabinet Secretary

Introduction:

The Legislature is a body that formulates the will of the people into laws and gives it a legal character. The judiciary interprets, defends, and applies the laws as proposed by the legislature. The cabinet, ministries and the agencies, are the bodies that enforce and execute laws proposed by the legislature and administer the nation.  

The Executive: 

The executive enforces laws and administers the nation. It consists of individual positions each with different powers and responsibilities.

Cabinet, Ministries, And Agencies:

• The Union Council of Ministers includes the Prime minister, Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State, and Secretaries
• The cabinet is headed by the prime minister and is advised by the cabinet secretary, and also acts as the head of the Indian Administrative Service and other civil services
• There are a total of 58 ministries and 93 departments working under the executive 

Cabinet Secretary:-

The cabinet secretary is the top-most executive official and also the senior-most civil servant of the Indian Government. It ranks eleventh on the Indian Order of Precedence. The Cabinet Secretary is also under the direct charge of the Prime Minister. The term of the Cabinet Secretary length was extended for a maximum of four years in 2010.

The current Cabinet Secretary is Rajiv Gauba, IAS. He is also designated to the following roles-

• Ex-officio head of the Civil Services Board
• Ex-officio head of the Cabinet Secretariat
• Ex-officio head of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) 
• Head of all civil services 

These are some various functions and powers  which are offered to the cabinet secretary :-

• A Cabinet Secretary provides assistance to the Council of Ministers and acts as an  Senior Adviser of the Civil services and the Prime Minister.
• He also prepares the agenda of the Cabinet and attends all the meetings related to it.
• Ensuring the implementation of the Cabinet decisions.
• He also recommends postings of officers of the rank of secretary and additional Secretary to the Appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC). 
• He also serves as the Chairman of the Committee of Secretaries on Administration as well as the Chief Secretaries Committee.
• He provides an element of Continuity and Stability to administration during crises.

Tenure And Order Of Precedence Of The Cabinet Secretary:-

• The tenure of the Cabinet Secretary is usually 2-3 years. However, it can be extended.
• The status of the Cabinet Secretary in the Indian order of precedence is equal to that of the Attorney General of India and just above chiefs of staff or equal to the ones in armed services holding the full general rank. He ranks 11th in the Indian order of precedence.

Current Cabinet Secretary Of India

Rajiv Gauba, IAS, is the current Cabinet Secretary of India and has been in service since the year 2019. He is the 32nd Cabinet Secretary of India and took over this position on 30th August 2019. He has a graduate degree and is also a gold medallist in B.Sc. Physics from Patna University. He is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1982 batch of Jharkhand (Than Bihar) cadre. He had previously served in various positions for the Government of India, in various states. They are as follows:-

1. Chief Secretary of Jharkhand
2. District magistrate and collector of Gaya, Nalanda, and Muzaffarpur districts—before the bifurcation of Bihar
3. Urban Development Secretary
4. Home Secretary of India
5. Additional secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs
6. Additional secretary in the Ministry of Communications
7. Joint secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
8. Private secretary to the Minister of Defense
9. Adviser to the executive director of the International Monetary Fund.

The Cabinet Secretariat comprises three wings. These are- Civil, Military and Intelligence. The Civil wing is the main wing which provides aid, advice and assistance to the Cabinet. The main purpose of having a Military wing is to have better Intelligence and to provide proper coordination with the secretarial assistance to the Defense Committee of the Cabinet and the National Defense Council.

The Military wing is represented by a Major General rank officer, or its equivalent power officers in the Indian Armed Forces. The Intelligence Wing deals with the matters regarding the Joint Intelligence Community of the Union Cabinet. The chief of the Research and Analytical Wing (R&AW) also first reports back to the Cabinet Secretary, and is designated Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat.

Conclusion:

Being the head of the Civil Services, the responsible position holder ensures that the civil services are equipped with great skills and capability to face the vigorous challenges and that for civil servants, who can work in a fair and decent environment. The Cabinet Secretary is arguably India’s most powerful bureaucrat and the right hand of the Prime Minister Of India. Thus we see that the cabinet secretary plays a significant role in the Executive body of India and performs various roles in the Union of India as a whole.