Bhubaneswar: Odisha is set to get its first woman Chief Secretary. Anu Garg will be the first woman to hold this prestigious position in the state. The Odisha government has announced the appointment of Anu Garg, currently serving as the Development Commissioner, as the next Chief Secretary. A formal notification regarding her appointment was issued today by the Department of Public Administration.
Currently, Manoj Ahuja holds the post of Chief Secretary, and his term ends on December 31. Anu Garg will assume charge as Chief Secretary from the new year (January 1, 2026). Currently, she is serving as the State Development Commissioner and also holds the additional charge of Additional Chief Secretary of the Water Resources Department and the Planning & Coordination Department. Anu Garg is a 1991 batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre. She has a long and distinguished career spanning 34 years in the government sector. Before becoming the Development Commissioner, she served as the Principal Secretary in the Labour and ESI Department and the Women and Child Development Department of the Odisha government.
Anu has also held several important positions in various ministries of the Government of India. She has served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Additionally, she served as Commissioner-cum-Secretary in the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Odisha government from 2008 to 2012. Between 1992 and 2003, Anu worked in various districts of Odisha as Deputy Collector, Additional Collector, District Collector, and Director and Administrative Secretary of various departments.
Who is Anu Garg?
Anu was born on March 1, 1969, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. She completed her BA in Psychology from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, and her MA in Sociology from Lucknow University. She also earned a Master of Public Health degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in the USA in 2007. She has also been a member of the High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Universal Health Coverage, established by the Planning Commission of the Government of India. Under Anu’s leadership, Odisha received the ‘National Water Award’ as the best state in 2023. Similarly, the state secured second place in 2022. In 2010, she received the ‘Partner Congeniality Award’ from the Korea Development Institute.
She was also awarded the ‘Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program Fellowship’ in 2006-07 and the ‘John C. Hume Scholarship’ from Johns Hopkins University for academic excellence and commitment. Anu has also published numerous articles on various aspects of public health in several renowned journals.
