Who is Anu Garg? First Woman to be Appointed as Odisha Chief Secretary

The Odisha government has named Anu Garg as the next chief secretary of the state. The 1991 batch IAS officer will be the first woman chief secretary of ⁦Odisha. The General Administration & Public Grievance(GA

&PG) Department, government of Odisha, issued a notification in this connection. Garg will succeed Manoj Ahuja who will retire on December 31, as per the notification issued by the General Administration and Public Grievances Department.She is at present the development commissioner of the state. She also holds the charge of secretary of the Planning and Convergence Department, along with the charge of additional chief secretary of the Water Resources Department. She had also scripted history in February 2023 by becoming the first woman to be appointed as the development commissioner, the second-highest-ranked bureaucrat in the state.A 1991-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Odisha cadre, Anu Garg brings with her over three decades of wide-ranging administrative experience at the state, district, and national levels. Anu Garg has earlier served as Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Principal Secretary in departments such as Women & Child Development and Labour & ESI.She also held several important district-level assignments, including District Collector and District Magistrate of Sambalpur and Bargarh, as well as Additional District Magistrate and Sub-Collector in Kalahandi and Jharsuguda.At the national level, she has worked in various capacities under the Government of India, including as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and as Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister.An alumna of Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, Anu Garg holds a Master's degree from the University of Lucknow and a Master of Public Health from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, USA.