J Sathyanarayana, the 1977 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, will be the new secretary of department of information technology (IT), ministry of communications and IT, government of India. The position was lying vacant ever since Shashi Kant Sharma took over as secretary in department of defence

Rentala Chandrasekhar, secretary (telecom) was holding the additional charge so far.

Sathyanarayana is currently posted as chief commissioner in the land management department of the Andhra Pradesh government. He had also held charge of special chief secretary in the chief minister’s office in Andhra Pradesh.

Sathyanarayana is not a new face in the field of information technology as he held the charge of principal secretary (IT) with government of Andhra Pradesh and later as chief executive officer of National Institute for Smart Government (NISG).

As CEO of NISG, Sathyanarayana has been credited with conceptualising many mission mode projects like passports, immigration, e-Biz and agriculture part of the national e-governance plan.

Sathyanarayana is a post graduate in Physics and MBA from Yugoslavia. The appointment committee of the cabinet (ACC) has approved his appointment for two years or until further orders.