Rajesh Bhushan gets additional charge of Secretary, Department of Health Research

New Delhi: The Central Government has given the additional charge of the post of Secretary, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to Union health secretary Shri Rajesh Bhushan.

The Department of Health Research is a division under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

"The competent authority has approved the assignment of additional charge of the post of Secretary, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to Shri Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Department of Health, with immediate effect and till the appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders, whichever is earlier," said a circular assessed by Medical Dialogues.

Also Read: Cabinet extends ICMR tenure of Dr Balram Bhargava by three months

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that Dr Balram Bhargav's tenure as DG ICMR-cum-Secretary Department of Health and Research has been extended for another three more months starting April 15. He was appointed as the Director General of the apex research body on April 16, 2018, for a four-year term.

Prior to his appointment at ICMR, Dr Bhargava was a Professor of cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMS).

The decision comes after the tenure of Dr Balram Bhargava as Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Secretary, Department of Health Research came to an end.

Shri Rajesh Bhushan joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1987 as a Bihar cadre officer and is currently Secretary in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India. Before becoming Secretary in the MoHFW, he was Officer-on-Special-Duty in the MoHFW for about three months.

Prior to joining the MoHFW, he was Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development and in the Cabinet Secretariat. In his more than three decades of public service, both in the State Government and the Union Government, Rajesh has served as an administrator and a policy-maker having held a wide range of assignments in the fields of information, education, transport, rural development and health. 

Rajesh Bhushan was appointed as the new Health Secretary to succeed Preeti Sudan, whose extended tenure was coming to an end on July 31, 2020.

Also Read: Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan appointed as chairperson of key WHO panel