Home Secretary Govind Mohan to Hold Additional Charge of Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation

Govind Mohan, Union Home Secretary and a 1989-batch IAS officer of the Sikkim cadre, will hold additional charge of the post of Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, from September 17 to September 26, 2026. The Competent Authority approved the arrangement to cover the period of leave of Ashish Kumar Bhutani, the incumbent Secretary.

The Ministry of Cooperation was carved out in July 2021 to handle the cooperative sector, which had until then been administered from within the Ministry of Agriculture. It oversees the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and its 2023 amendment, the computerisation of primary agricultural credit societies, the national cooperative database, and the three national-level cooperative bodies set up for exports, organic produce and seeds. Its Secretary reports to a portfolio held by the Union Home Minister, which is why additional charge arrangements between the two ministries are administratively simple. The ministry also handles the National Cooperative Development Corporation, the cooperative sugar mills and credit societies that come under multi-state registration, and the training and education work routed through the national cooperative union. Its creation moved a subject that had sat as a division inside another ministry into a full-fledged department with its own Secretary.

Mohan holds a BTech from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University and a postgraduate diploma in management from IIM Ahmedabad. He took charge as Union Home Secretary on August 23, 2024, succeeding Ajay Kumar Bhalla, after a week as Officer on Special Duty in the ministry. Before that he was Secretary in the Ministry of Culture from October 2021 to August 2024. As Joint Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat he handled price management and inflation, natural gas grid development, telecom and space policy, allocation of natural resources, the Commonwealth Games, inland waterways and dedicated freight corridors. He had earlier served in the Ministry of Home Affairs as Additional Secretary handling the union territories divisions.

His tenure as Home Secretary has twice been extended past superannuation. The first extension, approved in July 2025, ran to August 22, 2026. A second one-year extension cleared in August 2026 allows him to continue to August 22, 2027, granted in relaxation of Fundamental Rule 56(d) and Rule 16(1A) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.

Holding additional charge of another secretary-level post for a nine-day leave period is standard practice in the central secretariat, and the choice of the Home Secretary here follows the ministerial link rather than any reshuffle signal. Nothing in the order alters Bhutani's position; he resumes on return from leave.

The Ministry of Cooperation's current workload includes the rollout of the PACS computerisation programme across the states, the model bye-laws that states have been asked to adopt, and the expansion of primary agricultural credit societies into new service areas. Routine files at the secretary level continue moving during the leave period under the additional charge arrangement. The wider cooperative agenda includes new multi-state societies set up for exports, organic produce and seed production, the extension of primary agricultural credit societies into services such as fair price shops, gas distribution and common service centres, and the model bye-laws circulated for state adoption. Each of those runs through state registrars of cooperative societies, which makes the ministry's work heavily dependent on state-level administration.

The arrangement runs from September 17, 2026 to September 26, 2026, as approved by the Competent Authority. Mohan continues as Union Home Secretary throughout. The Ministry of Home Affairs meanwhile continues on its own calendar, with census preparations, internal security reviews and the Left Wing Extremism deadline the ministry has set for itself.