Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh will stay in office for one more year as per the announcement by the centre. His term, which was to end on October 31, now runs till October 31, 2027.
The extension was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Singh will serve for a year or until further orders, whichever comes first.
A 1989-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, Singh took charge as the Defence Secretary on November 1, 2024, a day after Giridhar Aramane retired.
Singh had been posted in the Ministry on August 20, 2024, as Officer on Special Duty, and he held that charge until he was named Defence Secretary.
Previously, he spent April to August 2024 as Secretary of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
His career has moved between the Centre and his home cadre. In the Union government, he has served as Secretary of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and as Director of Works and Urban Transport in the Ministry of Urban Development. In Kerala, he has been Urban Development Secretary and Finance Secretary.
The extension comes at a time when the Defence Ministry is busy on several fronts. The proposed theatre commands, the push for domestic defence production and a broader set of reforms in the armed forces are all in progress. With these processes still under way, the Centre appears to have chosen to retain the top bureaucrat.