Sujata Saunik has held the positions of Additional Chief Secretary of the Skill Development, Employment, and Entrepreneurship Department and Principal Secretary of Public Health and Financial Reform at the state level for the last decade.
Sujata Saunik, a 1987 batch IAS officer, became Maharashtra’s first female Chief Secretary on Sunday when she succeeded retiring Chief Secretary Nitin Kareer. Kareer had assumed control of this position from Saunik’s husband, Manoj Saunik.
Sujata Saunik previously served as an additional chief secretary in Maharashtra’s Home and General Administration Departments. She will be Maharashtra’s 45th Chief Secretary since the state’s inception in 1960.
The national government extended the outgoing Chief Secretary’s tenure by three months in March 2024, following the Lok Sabha elections, which ended on June 4 with the announcement of the results. In addition to Saunik, prominent bureaucrats Rajesh Kumar and IS Chahal were vying for the position of Chief Secretary.
However, her appointment to the secretary rank early this week, making her one of the country’s most senior bureaucrats, left the administration with no choice but to nominate her as the state’s CS.
Women currently hold Maharashtra’s top two offices, Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP). Rashmi Shukla, a senior IPS officer, became Maharashtra’s DGP in January 2024. She was also the first woman to occupy that role.
Saunik has served as Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Skill Development, Employment, and Entrepreneurship Department (SDEED) and Principal Secretary of Public Health and Financial Reform at the state level for the past decade.
She took part in an Oxford Policy Management study that compared outlays to outcomes for two main government departments: Women and Children and School Education. She has worked in the Federal Women and Children’s and Disaster Management departments, as well as two UN humanitarian missions in Cambodia and Kosovo.