The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed Deepak Agarwal, a 2000-batch IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, as the new Managing Director (MD) of the National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) for a five-year term. This appointment, announced on Friday, follows recent interim arrangements involving officials from the Ministry of Cooperation and Agriculture.
Previously, the ACC assigned Pankaj Kumar Bansal, an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation, as the MD for a temporary period until a permanent appointment was made. This decision replaced an earlier move by the Agriculture Ministry, which had assigned Muktanand Agrawal, a Joint Secretary in the ministry, with the additional charge of MD after Ritesh Chauhan vacated the position on September 22.
The ACC, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah as its other member, is tasked with senior-level appointments across Central government and public sector entities. The appointment of Agarwal comes amid reported discussions over jurisdiction between the Agriculture and Cooperation Ministries regarding the NAFED MD post. This decision effectively ends the interim arrangements and brings a dedicated leader to NAFED, which plays a key role in supporting agriculture marketing in India.
