The corridors of the Petroleum Ministry point to certain apprehensions over the appointment of a non-IAS officer as a Joint Secretary.

This sparked the buzz that in several decades, this was for the first time that a non-IAS officer was appointed to a JS-level post in the Petroleum Ministry. Officers are left to wonder whether this could become a trendsetter. Though, as a single exception Sanjay Sudhir, a 1993 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, served in MoP&NG  as Joint Secretary (JSIC) and handled the International Cooperation desk but the insiders say that it has least to do with the core operations of MoP&NG.      

It may be mentioned that the NaMo administration on May 01 had appointed Sunil Kumar (IRAS:1995) as JS, MoP&NG vice Sandeep Pondrik (IAS:1993:BH). There have been, though, numerous cases of officers belonging to other services appointed at the Deputy Secretary and Director levels but none at the JS level in recent decades. 

Further, Indianmandarins learnt that Sunil Kumar is not totally new to this domain as prior to joining IRAS he had served in a Maharatna oil PSU.