Amardeep Singh Bhatia takes charge as new DPIIT secretary

Senior IAS officer Amardeep Singh Bhatia has assumed the charge of Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), an official statement said on Wednesday.

He has replaced Rajesh Kumar Singh, who has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty, Department of Defence.

Prior to this, Bhatia, a 1993 Batch from Nagaland cadre, was serving as Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce and was involved in trade policies and free trade agreement negotiations.

In the central government, he has held many important positions in the Ministries of Corporate Affairs and Health and Family Welfare.

In the state government, the new DPIIT secretary has handled Departments of Planning and Coordination, Health and Family Welfare, Environment and Forest, Municipalities and Local Self Government and Home, among others.

DPIIT, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, looks after foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, startups, ease of doing business, promoting internal trade and the fast-growing e-commerce sector.

Bhatia is assuming charge at a time when the country's FDI declined 3.49% to $44.42 billion in 2023-24 due to global uncertainties.

The department is also looking for further easing FDI procedures to boost flows of overseas investments.