New defence secretary takes over

NEW DELHI: Ajay Prasad, a 1969 batch IAS officer from the Himachal Pradesh cadre, took over as the new defence secretary on Monday after a delay of more than a week.
The defence ministry was virtually headless for the whole of last week since Defence Minister George Fernandes was away in Brazil and Prasad continued to work as OSD (officer on special duty) to Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.
Prasad, as reported earlier, was apparently waiting for three IAS officers senior to him in the defence ministry to be shifted out before assuming charge.