NEW DELHI: Mr. Pawan Agarwal, IAS, has been appointed as Special Secretary (Logistics) in Department of Commerce and Industry. He is a 1985 batch IAS officer of West Bengal Cadre. He will replace N Sivasailam, who is retiring on April 30.

Mr. Pawan Agarwal is currently Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Consumer Affairs. Until recently, he has been CEO of India’s food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), wherein he is leading transformation of food safety and nutrition landscape of the Country.

He has earlier served in the Ministry o f Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog), Ministry of HRD and the UGC in Government of India, where he got opportunity to look after important desks related to Central Universities, IITs and IIMs. During this period, he developed expertise in policy and practice of higher education. He was recipient of the prestigious Fulbright New Century Scholarship at Harvard University and the Emory University in the United States in 2005/06.

He was visiting scholar and fellow at ICRIER, New Delhi and the Centre for the Study of Higher Education and the Australia India Institute in University of Melbourne. He has published on a range of higher education issues. His book ‘Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the Future’ published by Sage in 2009 is an authoritative and well-regarded book on India’s higher education system.