The Manmohan Singh government has begun discussions on appointments to the civil service and appointments cleared by the National Democratic Alliance administration in its final weeks of power.
The first major appointment the government will make is that of the new foreign secretary, the diplomat who heads the Indian Foreign Service.
Foreign Secretary Shashank, who took charge on December 2, 2003, retires on July 31.
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The government will also decide who the next Intelligence Bureau chief will be. Intelligence Bureau Director K P Singh retires in August.
The Intelligence Bureau collects intelligence within the country.
Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pandey is yet to clear the list of appointments cleared by Atal Bihari Vajpayee before he stepped down as prime minister, as he wants the new government's okay.
Among those who feature in the list of appointments are two of Vajpayee's private secretaries and an officer on special duty attached to then finance minister Jaswant Singh.
Indian Foreign Service officer Ajay Bisaria, one of Vajpayee's secretaries, has been posted to the United Nations while the other, R P Singh, has been deputed to the World Bank. Singh, an officer of the rank of joint secretary, is from the 1983 batch of the Indian Administrative Service.
Singh's OSD Shakti Singh Rathore, an officer from the Rajasthan Administrative Service cadre, has also been posted to the World Bank, as executive assistant to the Bank's executive director.
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