Port Blair (Sri Vijay Puram): Two decades after district-level assignments, the 1998-batch IAS officer Gyanesh Bharti, on Tuesday assumed charge as the Chief Secretary of the Andaman & Nicobar Administration, marking the return to the Islands of an officer with a substantial administrative association with the Union Territory.
According to an official account, Gyanesh Bharti served as Deputy Commissioner, Nicobar, from July 11, 2002 to October 31, 2003, before taking charge as Deputy Commissioner in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands from November 1, 2003 to October 21, 2005.
Bharti’s earlier tenure included a stint as Deputy Commissioner of the then combined South Andaman and North & Middle Andaman districts, giving him administrative experience across a wide geographical spread of the Islands.
His assumption of charge as Chief Secretary therefore marks a notable homecoming to the Union Territory, more than two decades after his earlier district-level assignments.
Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday appointed Gyanesh Bharti, who was serving as Deputy Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India, as Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, hours after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved his repatriation back to his cadre, less than a year after he was appointed as DEC.
Bharti was appointed as DEC on August 25, 2025, with his tenure supposed to be till June 18, 2028. Prior to being appointed DEC, he was posted as Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development from June 2024 to August 2025, before which he was Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi from 2022 to 2024.
