Union Science and Technology Secretary to demit office 6 months before tenure ends

In an unusual move, Union Science and Technology Secretary Srivari Chandrasekhar has become the first S&T Secretary in four decades who has decided to go back to the parent cadre before completing his tenure.

The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), in an order issued on Friday, said that the ACC approved the premature repatriation of Chandrasekhar to his parent organisation—Council for Scientific and Industrial Research—on “personal grounds”.

Chandrasekhar, an organic chemist of international repute and a former director of the CSIR’s Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, has been allowed to join the CSIR on July 7, a few months before his approved tenure.

He was appointed DST Secretary in December 2021 for two years, or until he turned 60. Neither of these two criteria has been fulfilled.

The premature tenure cut for Chandrasekhar is intriguing because generally, the scientists selected as DST secretaries enjoy long tenures as they get extensions. His three immediate predecessors — Ashutosh Sharma (6.5 years), T Ramasami (8 years) and V S Ramamurthy (11 years) — had a long stint at DST.

DH calls and messages to Chandrasekhar didn’t elicit any response.

A recipient of the 2014 Infosys award, Chandrasekhar is a renowned synthetic organic chemist and made significant contributions in diverse areas of organic chemistry.

“His research efforts, with an impressive degree of innovation and enterprise, have led to the synthesis of complex and scarcely available natural products and new molecular entities for affordable healthcare. His endeavours have provided cost-effective technologies to the chemical industry through the identification of new reagents/solvents for specific transformations,” says the Infosys award citation.