In June 2025, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the appointment of Parag Jain, a 1989 batch senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Punjab cadre, as the new Secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the external intelligence agency of India.
- He will succeed the current R&AW Chief, Ravi Sinha, who is set to retire on 30th June 2025.
- Jain will assume charge on 1st July 2025 for a fixed tenure of two years.
About Parag Jain:
i.He currently serves as the head of the Aviation Research Centre (ARC), the technical wing of R&AW.
ii.He played a key role in Operation Sindoor, providing critical intelligence for precision missile strikes on terrorist hideouts in Pakistan.
iii.Jain held several critical posts in the Punjab Police, including Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Chandigarh and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Ludhiana during the terrorism crisis in Punjab.
iv.In 2005, he was awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service, an award of the British Raj given to both European and Asian police personnel, in recognition of his dedication and distinguished contributions to national security and intelligence operations.
ACC Extends CBDT Chairman Ravi Agrawal’s Tenure till June 2026
In June 2025, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the re-appointment of Ravi Agrawal, a 1988-batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) (Income Tax cadre), as the Chairman of the New Delhi (Delhi) based Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Department of Revenue (DOR), under the Ministry of Finance (MoF), effective from 1st July 2025 to 30th June 2026.
- In June 2024, Agrawal took charge as CBDT Chairman, succeeding Nitin Gupta, a 1986-batch IRS officer.
About Ravi Agrawal:
i.Ravi Agrawal, who previously served as Director General (DG) of Income Tax (IT) Investigation in Delhi.
ii.He had previously served as a Member (Administration) in CBDT since July 2023.
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT):
i.The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), functioning under the DOR, MoF, comprises a Chairman and six Members, all holding the rank of Special Secretary.
- The six current serving Members include Prabodh Seth, Ramesh Narain Parbat, Pankaj Kumar Mishra, Sanjay Bahadur, L. Rajasekhar Reddy, and G. Aparna Rao.
ii.It administers direct taxes such as Income Tax (IT) and Corporate Tax (CT) through the functioning of the Income Tax Department (ITD).
