Vandita Sharma appointed Karnataka chief secretary

The Karnataka government on Friday appointed 1986-batch IAS officer Vandita Sharma as the chief secretary, the senior-most position in the state’s bureaucracy.

Vandita will take over from incumbent P Ravi Kumar on May 31. She will be in office till November 2023. At present, Vandita is the additional chief secretary-cum-development commissioner.

A native of Punjab, Vandita will be Karnataka’s 39th chief secretary. Also, she is the fourth woman to occupy the top post after Theresa Bhattacharya (2000), Malati Das (2006) and K Ratna Prabha (2017).

In her 36-year career, Vandita has occupied several positions. Last year, she was appointed as nodal officer to oversee Covid-19 vaccination in the state. She also worked with the Department of Space at the Centre.

Currently, Vandita is the honorary president of the IAS Officers’ Association of Karnataka. In May 2021, she had written to the then chief minister BS Yediyurappa expressing “strong protest” against the manhandling of young IAS officer V Yashwanth allegedly by the supporters of BJP MLA Satish Reddy.