Defence secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh gets one-year extension

NEW DELHI: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Saturday approved a one-year service extension to defence secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, who also holds the additional charge of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chairman.

His current tenure was scheduled to end on Oct 31, 2026. He will now serve in the role until Oct 31, 2027, or until further orders, whichever comes earlier, the ACC said in a statement on Saturday.

A 1989-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Kerala cadre, Singh acts as the administrative head of the defence ministry, overseeing defence policy-making, inter-service coordination, budget administration, and strategic execution. He also serves as the principal adviser to defence minister Rajnath Singh on national security administration, policy matters, and inter-service coordination and represents the defence ministry before parliamentary committees, including the Public Accounts Committee.

He took over the additional charge of DRDO chairman after the retirement of Samir V Kamat, guiding India's defence research, laboratories, missile technology, autonomous systems, and modernization programmes.

Before coming to the defence ministry, Singh had managed industrial policy, startup initiatives, and internal trade promotion between May 2023 and Oct 2024, overseen livestock policies, dairy development, and national food security programmes from Sept 2022 to April 2023 and served in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, and the department of agriculture, cooperation & farmers welfare. Before his central deputation, he had served as finance secretary and urban development secretary for the Kerala govt.