April 02, 2002

    Shri B.K. Chaturvedi, an IAS Officer of 1966 Batch (UP Cadre) assumed charge as Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, here today. Shri Chaturvedi was till now holding the charge of Secretary, Department of Secondary & Higher Education, in the Ministry of Human Resources Development.

    Shri B.K. Chaturvedi is a Masters in Physics from Allahabad University with a specialization in Electronics. Subsequently he studied Public Administration from Manchester University, United Kingdom. He started his career as Associate Professor of Physics in the Engineering College of Allahabad University. After teaching for more than two years, he joined the Indian Administrative Service in July, 1966. Since then he has worked in Government of Uttar Pradesh on various assignments. These include District Magistrates of the backward district of Azamgarh in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Allahabad. Shri Chaturvedi completed various assignments under Govt. of U.P. in the field of agriculture, industrial development, urban development and finance and went on to specialize in finance and commerce. During this period he worked in Government of Uttar Pradesh as Secretary (Finance) in charge of taxation and budget, also looked after industrial finance in the State Financial Organization.

    Shri Chaturvedi joined Government of India n 1984. He acquired expertise in the field of commerce. During this period he worked as Executive Director of the Trade Development Authority of India and was incharge of policy making on India's international trade with East European countries and the state trading organizations. Shri Chaturvedi has held several senior assignments in the last few years. These include Chairman-cum-Managing Director, State Trading Corporation of India; Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Ministry of Textiles; Special Secretary (Insurance and External Finance), Ministry of Finance; Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development; Secretary, Department of Elementary Education & Literacy; Ministry of Human Resource Development.

    Shri Chaturvedi has been a Member of the Board of a large number of public sector undertakings and has been Chairman of several of these. These include the Kudremukh Iron Ore Co., Government of India, U.P. State Electricity Board, M/s Twiga Fibre Glass Ltd., M/s Micro Hydal Corporation, Govt. of U.P., Life Insurance Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation of India and the National Insurance Academy. He has travelled extensively to various countries including China, Japan, Eastern and Western Europe including Russia, U.K., Germany, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Argentina, Canada and a host of other countries in Africa and Europe. He has represented Government of India in UNICEF and UNDP Boards, New York, USA.

    Shri Chaturvedi has published a number of research papers. Starting with his paper on the "Maxwell's Distribution Law" published in the American Journal of Physics in early sixties, he has written on Inter-State Regional Disparities, Inter-State Variations on Sales Tax and most recently conducted a study on gender in the hills of U.P with the assistance of ICSSR.

    Shri Chaturvedi has bagged several awards during his career including the Special Award for Outstanding Performance as District Magistrate of Azamgarh, Chancellor's Medal for Best Student in the Undergraduates Course and appreciation by Government of U.P for Administrative Management in the U.P. State Electricity Board. In the most recent times, he has two major achievements to his credit : he pioneered the reforms in the insurance sector in the country which is now working successfully; and he has initiated the process of Gender budgeting. Recently the Department of Education has taken initiative to introduce a bill for Universalisation of Elementary Education. This, it is hoped would provide free and compulsory quality education to all young children for eight years.

    Shri Chaturvedi has keen interest in young children. He started a school in the Chiraiya Court, Azamgarh, U.P. for young girls in 1976. The school has now flourished into a high school where both boys and girls are being given education.