K M Chandrasekhar on Wednesday took over as cabinet secretary, succeeding B K Chaturvedi, who has been appointed a member in the Planning Commission upon his retirement.

A 1970 Kerala-cadre IAS officer, Chandrasekhar has been revenue secretary in the Finance Ministry and ambassador and permanent representative at the World Trade Organisation.

With this, officials from Kerala [Images] have managed to occupy key posts in the Prime Minister's Office, the others being National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, who holds the rank of a minister of state, and Principal Secretary T K A Nair. Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon is also from Kerala.

Chandrasekhar has also been deputy chief of mission at Belgium and joint secretary (Trade Policy Division) in the Ministry of Commerce and Chairman, Spices Board of India.

As revenue secretary, he was instrumental in ensuring consistent high performance in revenue collection and ushering in systemic changes in revenue administration, procedures and policy.

Chandrasekhar was chairman/chief executive/director of more than 40 public and private sector companies at various times.

He has many achievements and major milestones to his credit in his distinguished career both in the government of Kerala and in the Centre and also possesses vast international experience.

Chandrasekhar holds a BA (Hons) degree in Economics, MA (History) from the University of Delhi and MA (Management Studies) from the University of Leeds, UK.