ITS Officer Mohit Kumar Agrawal to Join Ministry of Petroleum as Deputy Secretary

Mohit Kumar Agrawal, an Indian Trade Service officer, will join the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas as Deputy Secretary on deputation basis for a period of four years under the Central Staffing Scheme, according to an order issued this week.

The Deputy Secretary rank sits below Director and Joint Secretary in the central government's administrative hierarchy but carries substantive file-handling responsibility within a ministry, often on specific policy or regulatory subjects assigned to the officer. At the petroleum ministry, Deputy Secretary-level officers typically work on subjects spanning refinery policy, pricing, or downstream regulatory coordination, depending on the specific division to which they are assigned, and often serve as the working-level point of contact for public sector oil marketing companies on their assigned files.

Agrawal's background in the Indian Trade Service, a cadre focused on international trade policy and promotion, brings a trade-oriented lens to a ministry that manages significant crude oil import volumes and engages regularly with global energy markets and trade negotiations around energy security. His deputation reflects the Central Staffing Scheme's practice of drawing officers from specialised services into ministries where their subject expertise has direct relevance, particularly as energy trade and diversification of crude sourcing have become bigger priorities within the ministry's work.

His move to the ministry comes via deputation rather than promotion, placing him for the first time within India's energy administration after a career built within trade policy and promotion functions, a transition that will require him to build familiarity with the specific regulatory and commercial framework governing India's oil and gas sector.

The four-year term is longer than the typical three-year Central Staffing Scheme deputation, suggesting the ministry sought continuity for whatever specific subject Agrawal will handle over an extended posting, a decision ministries sometimes make when a role requires sustained engagement with long-running negotiations or projects.

Agrawal will be joining a ministry managing India's crude oil procurement strategy at a time of continued volatility in global energy markets, alongside the government's push to expand domestic refining capacity and diversify crude sourcing away from traditional suppliers, an effort that has taken on added urgency amid shifting global sanctions regimes affecting several major oil-exporting countries.

The deputation is for four years under the Central Staffing Scheme, as per the order.