Shri Apurva Chandra

Shri Apurva Chandra belongs to the 1988 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Maharashtra Cadre. A Civil Engineer, Shri Chandra obtained his Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering and Masters in Structural Engineering from IIT Delhi. He has long experience of dealing with issues relating to industries while working in the Government of Maharashtra and the Government of India.

Shri Chandra has spent more than seven years in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in the Government of India. He has been involved in framing policies with regard to fuel supplies to industries, supply logistics, transportation, storage & distribution of fuel products etc. He was directly associated with Natural Gas transportation infrastructure, setting up city gas distribution companies, LNG import terminals and allocation of gas to industries. Shri Chandra has served on the Board of Directors of Maharatna PSU, GAIL (India) Ltd. and Petronet LNG Ltd.

Shri Chandra has worked for over four years between 2013 and 2017 as Principal Secretary (Industries) in the Government of Maharashtra. Maharashtra led the country in attracting FDI and other investments over the period. Shri Chandra was instrumental in a slew of new policies like Electronic Policy, Retail policy, Single Window Policy to attract new Investments. The first smart industrial township under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) has been operationalised at Aurangabad in Maharashtra under the leadership of Shri Chandra. More than 70 clusters for MSMEs have been operationalised to make available modern technology through common facility centres. Leading industrial players like General Electric, General Motors, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Fiat Chrysler, Mahindra, Posco, Emerson, LG, Haier etc. have invested in Maharashtra during Mr Chandra's tenure.

Shri Apurva Chandra joined as Director General (Acquisition) in Ministry of Defence w.e.f. 01.12.2017 with the mandate of strengthening the Indian Armed Forces by expediting the acquisition process. Several major contracts like the S-400 missile system, Multi-Role Helicopters, Assault Rifles, Naval ships, T-90 tanks etc. were signed during the period. He chaired the Committee to draft the new Defence Acquisition Procedure. The DAP 2020 has come into effect from 1st October 2020 and will go a long way in promoting AtmaNirbhar Bharat while expediting the procurements for the Armed Forces.

Shri Apurva Chandra took over as Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment w.e.f. 01.10.2020 with the mandate to implement the Labour Codes passed by the Parliament in September 2020 expeditiously. Under his guidance rules have been framed for all four Labour Codes after extensive consultations with all stakeholders. The Atmanibhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana has been launched to provide employment opportunities to 7.8 million workers in the formal sector with a budget of Rs. 23,000 crore (USD 3 Billion). He chaired the Governing Body of the ILO and guided the discussions to provide relief to workers affected by the Covid pandemic. With his initiatives, a scheme was launched to provide pensions to families of workers who lost their lives during Covid.

Shri Apurva Chandra took over as Secretary of, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on 23rd August 2021. Since then he has spearheaded the Ministry’s key policy issues on matters related to outreach, broadcasting, stakeholder partnership and collaboration with the Media and Entertainment Sector. Under his leadership Ministry of I&B has undertaken several initiatives on important campaigns like Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Seva Samarpan, etc. Under his guidance, the Ministry has launched the ‘Broadcast Seva Portal’ to ease the compliance burden of Broadcasters and Community Radio Stations. India participated as ‘Country of Honour’ at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 and was the first country ever to do so. He currently heads the Task Force to lay down the policy for development of the sunrise AVGC Sector. Taking action for the first time under the Digital Media Rules, the Ministry has blocked several News portals from foreign countries spreading misinformation, detrimental to the security of the Country. The merger of four Film Units has been given effect to promote the Film Sector.