Appointments & Leadership Changes

June brought an unusually dense run of top-level appointments across the military, judiciary, banking, and central bureaucracy. This chapter groups them by domain and, where relevant, flags who each appointee succeeded — a detail exams frequently test alongside the appointment itself.

6.1 Military Leadership

The single biggest defence appointment of the month: Lieutenant General Dhiraj Seth was named the next Chief of the Army Staff, taking over from the afternoon of 30 June 2026, succeeding General Upendra Dwivedi, who retired on that date. Lt Gen Seth was serving as Vice Chief of the Army Staff immediately before the appointment.

Other senior military changes: Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan assumed charge as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, at a ceremonial parade in Mumbai on 30 May, moving from his previous post as Vice Chief of the Naval Staff. Air Marshal Tarun Chaudhry took over as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Air Command, on 1 June, succeeding Air Marshal Balakrishnan Manikantan, who superannuated on 31 May after 40 years of service; Chaudhry was commissioned into the IAF's fighter stream in December 1989 and is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College, College of Air Warfare and National Defence College. Vice Admiral Vineet McCarty became the 20th Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman & Nicobar Command, commissioned into the Navy on 1 July 1989 as a Gunnery and Missiles specialist, with over 36 years of service. Maj Gen Rachel Thomas took charge as Additional Director General, Military Nursing Service, succeeding Maj Gen Lissamma PV, who retired after four decades of service; Thomas herself was commissioned into the MNS on 1 June 1988. Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh — a 1989-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre — was given additional charge as Secretary, Department of Defence R&D, and Chairman, DRDO, taking over from Samir V. Kamat's completed tenure.

6.2 Judiciary

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant administered the oath of office to five new judges of the Supreme Court on 2 June: Justice Sheel Nagu, Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, Justice Arun Palli, and Senior Advocate Venkita Subramani (V.) Mohana. President Droupadi Murmu made the appointments under Article 124(2) of the Constitution, following recommendations from the Supreme Court Collegium at its 22 May and 27 May meetings. Separately, the President appointed six additional judges of the Bombay High Court as permanent judges — Justices Nivedita Prakash Mehta, Prafulla Surendrakumar Khubalkar, Ashwin Damodar Bhobe, Rohit Wasudeo Joshi, Advait Mahendra Sethna and Pravin Sheshrao Patil — for a court with jurisdiction over Maharashtra, Goa, and the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Indian jurist Bimal N. Patel was elected a Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for the 2026–2035 term, assuming office on 1 October 2026 and succeeding Neeru Chadha, whose nine-year tenure ends in September 2026. The election happened at the 36th Meeting of States Parties to UNCLOS at UN Headquarters, New York, where seven new ITLOS judges were elected overall — representing India, Vietnam, Ghana, Tunisia, Russia, Brazil and the Netherlands.

Tushar Mehta was reappointed Solicitor General of India for a further three years from 1 July 2026, making him one of the longest-serving holders of the post — the second-highest law officer of the Union Government, after the Attorney General. Alongside him, five Additional Solicitors General for the Supreme Court were reappointed — Vikramjit Banerjee, K. M. Nataraj, Suryaprakash V. Raju, N. Venkataraman and Aishwarya Bhati — and Chetan Sharma was reappointed as ASG for the Delhi High Court for a further six months from 1 July 2026.

6.3 Banking, Financial Regulation & PSU Leadership

Brajesh Kumar Singh assumed charge as Managing Director & CEO of Canara Bank, with a tenure running to 30 April 2029; he was previously Executive Director of Indian Bank from March 2024. Kumar Shanker took over as MD of Indraprastha Gas Limited, India's largest City Gas Distribution company, succeeding Kamal Kishore Chatiwal (who returned to GAIL after a three-year IGL tenure); Shanker previously led Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited. Hitesh Rameshchandra Joshi became Chairman-cum-Managing Director of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re), India's national reinsurer, effective 16 June 2026 with a tenure to 30 September 2028, succeeding Narayanan Ramaswamy. The RBI approved a three-month extension for Keki Mistry as HDFC Bank's Interim Part-Time Chairman, valid until 18 September 2026, pending the appointment of a permanent chairman; Mistry had originally taken the interim role from 19 March 2026, succeeding Atanu Chakraborty. Rajendra Kumar Saboo, Executive Director of UCO Bank, was given additional charge as MD & CEO, effective 19 June 2026 until 31 August 2026 or the appointment of a regular head, following the completed tenure of Ashwani Kumar.

At the RBI itself, Swaminathan Janakiraman's tenure as Deputy Governor was extended by two years from 26 June 2026; he was first appointed to the role in June 2023. The RBI currently has four Deputy Governors: Swaminathan Janakiraman, Poonam Gupta, Shirish Chandra Murmu and Rohit Jain. Separately, Sanjay Lohiya, Secretary of the Department of Financial Services (having assumed charge on 1 June 2026), was nominated a Director on the Central Boards of both the RBI (effective 11 June) and the State Bank of India, replacing Nagaraju Maddirala, who retired as DFS Secretary on 31 May.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved Neelkanth Mishra as India's Executive Director at the World Bank headquarters, Washington, D.C., for a three-year tenure, succeeding Parameswaran Iyer (a retired 1981-batch UP-cadre IAS officer), whose own tenure was extended until Mishra assumed charge. Separately, Saibal Chattopadhyay, former Director of IIM Calcutta, was named Chairperson of the National Statistical Commission, with Shubhabrata Das, Satyendra Bahadur Singh and Madhavan Mukund joining as part-time members.

India achieved a genuine first this month: Vivek Aggarwal, a 1994-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre currently serving as Secretary, Ministry of Culture, was elected the first-ever Indian Vice-President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Paris-based intergovernmental body (established 1989) that sets the global standard for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. His tenure runs from July 2026 to June 2027, following election by the FATF Plenary — the body's highest decision-making forum.

6.4 Central Bureaucracy, Intelligence & Space

Mahesh Dixit, a 1993-batch IPS officer previously serving as Special Director (second-in-command) of the Intelligence Bureau, was appointed the next Director of the Intelligence Bureau for a two-year tenure — India's premier internal intelligence agency, formed on 23 December 1887 and functioning under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Dr. U.P. Rajeev took charge as Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, ISRO's premier launch-vehicle design centre (established 1963 as the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station), succeeding Dr. A. Rajarajan, who retired at 60. Sanjay Jaju, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Telangana cadre, was named Telangana's new Chief Secretary, succeeding K. Ramakrishna Rao (Chapter 4). Prashant Sitaram Lokhande, previously Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, was appointed the new Chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), succeeding Rahul Singh, who moved to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

The National Biodiversity Authority reconstituted its Expert Committee on Agrobiodiversity under Section 13(1) of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, appointing Padma Shri Dr. P. L. Gautam — a former chairperson of both the NBA and the PPV&FRA — as Chair for a one-year term, with the PPVFRA Chairperson serving as Co-Chairperson.

6.5 Corporate & Brand Appointments

CRED founder Kunal Shah reportedly joined Meta Platforms to lead WhatsApp's global operations, stepping back from his operational CEO role at CRED (in which Meta remains only a minority investor with no access to CRED user data). Former Civil Aviation Secretary and ex-Air India CMD Pradeep Singh Kharola rejoined Air India as Executive Advisor to Chairman N. Chandrasekaran. Cricketer-turned-brand-face Shah Rukh Khan was named brand ambassador of Visa India's new "Infinitely More" campaign, spanning travel, dining, wellness and entertainment experiences. Banwarilal Purohit was unanimously elected President of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (a premier educational and cultural institution founded 1938 by K.M. Munshi, headquartered in Mumbai), following the resignation of Surendralal Mehta on health grounds, with veteran financier Deepak Parekh elected Vice-President the same day.

6.6 Politics — State & National

D. K. Shivakumar became Karnataka's 25th Chief Minister (Chapter 4). At the national level, the Rajya Sabha administered the oath to 10 newly elected or re-elected members: Praveen Chakravarty, Debashish Samantaray, Sana Satish Babu, Vijay Chintakayala, Bhashyam Rama Krishna, Lingamaneni Ramesh, Rajesh Parmanand Shukla, Baidyanath Ram, Nathwani Parimal and Tai Tagak — with the oath taken in Hindi by five members, English by one, Tamil by one and Telugu by three.

Chapter 6 Quiz

1. Who is India's next Chief of the Army Staff, and whom does he succeed? — Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth, succeeding Gen Upendra Dwivedi
2. Which Indian official became the first-ever FATF Vice-President, and what is his professional background? — Vivek Aggarwal, a 1994-batch IAS officer currently Secretary, Ministry of Culture
3. Name the five new Supreme Court judges sworn in by CJI Surya Kant on 2 June. — Justices Sheel Nagu, Shree Chandrashekhar, Sanjeev Sachdeva, Arun Palli and V. Mohana
4. Who succeeds Parameswaran Iyer as India's Executive Director at the World Bank? — Neelkanth Mishra
5. Which RBI Deputy Governor had a 2-year tenure extension this month? — Swaminathan Janakiraman
6. Who is India's new Director of the Intelligence Bureau? — Mahesh Dixit
7. Who was appointed CMD of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re)? — Hitesh Rameshchandra Joshi
8. Which Indian jurist was elected a judge of ITLOS for the 2026–2035 term? — Bimal N. Patel
9. Who became Karnataka's 25th Chief Minister? — D. K. Shivakumar
10. Which tech founder reportedly moved to Meta to head WhatsApp globally? — Kunal Shah (CRED founder)