At a time when approx 110 IAS officers belonging to 1984 & 1985 batch, including 02 from 1983, are waiting with bated breath to see their names on the empanelment list of secretary, a question that is there on the lip of everyone is whether there will be sufficient vacancies to accommodate all in the rank of secretaries at the time of empanelment. Though 2017 has approx 22 secretary ranks posts to offer to prospective aspirants, it is noteworthy that at present only six posts are vacant which may be offered to the freshly empanelled officers. Incidentally, there will be no vacancy in April. The following secretary rank posts are currently lying vacant: The Inter-State Council Secretariat is vacant since 01 February 2017 vice Ms. Naini Jayaseelan (IAS:1980: UT) who retired on 31 January 2017. Secretary posts in Dept of Telecom and Tribal Affairs have been vacant since 01 March 2017 vice J S Deepak (IAS:1982:UP) and A K Srivastava (IAS:1981:AM) whereas secretary posts in Ministry of Aayush and Dept of Consumer Affairs fell vacant on 31st March following the retirements of Ajit M Sharan (IAS:1979: HY) and Hem Kumar Pande (IAS:1982: WB) respectively. Though one more Secretary post (Performance Managment in Cabinet secretariat) would also have been there on offer, G Gurucharan (IAS:1982: KN) proved to be the last secretary who retired on 31st December 2017.