Gujarat principal health secy Jayanti Ravi transferred to TN

Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary in the Health and Family Welfare department of Gujarat government, has been appointed as Secretary, Auroville Foundation, Tamil Nadu, on deputation for three years.

Jayanti Ravi, Principal Secretary in the Health and Family Welfare department of Gujarat government, has been appointed as Secretary, Auroville Foundation, Tamil Nadu, on deputation for three years.

The appointment was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet in its order dated May 24 that was made public Tuesday.

A 1991-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, Jayanti (53), a native of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, has a Ph.D in e-governance and Masters in Nuclear Physics.

Before holding the posts of Health Commissioner and Principal Secretary in Health and Family Welfare department, Jayanti has held posts in the education, rural development and health departments in the Gujarat government. She was also part of the National Advisory Council of the Congress led UPA-I government in 2004.

Jayanti was both health commissioner and principal health secretary in Gujarat from July 2017 to September 2019, when Jai Prakash Shivahare was designated as the health commissioner.

In her tenure with the health department, Jayanti was faced with the challenges of Zika virus outbreak in 2017 and in 2018, as well as crimean congo hemorrhagic fever outbreaks every year and swine flu outbreaks every year.

However, the toughest challenge she had to deal with was the Covid-19 outbreak and she has been a proponent of AYUSH, especially during this period. In the first week of March 2020, Ravi had hailed the AYUSH ministry and recommended homeopathic medicines as a preventive step and immunity booster, in preparation of a possible outbreak. Gujarat had reported its first case on March 19, 2020.

In March 2019, Jayanti had also published a book ‘Sanity in Sanitation’, launched in Ahmedabad by the then governor, OP Kohli. The book, which explores the scope of the Swachh Bharat Mission, also has a front cover recommendation by the Prime Minister as well as a ‘Prime Minister’s Message’ penned by PM Narendra Modi.

Jayanti is also a performing vocalist in classical Indian style of music; both Hindustani and Carnatic.

She has widely been perceived as the administrative face of Gujarat government’s fight against Covid-19.

With the transfer, speculations are rife about Jayanti’s possible replacement. One of the names doing the rounds is of JP Gupta, a 1991-batch IAS officer who is now Chief Commissioner of State Tax. Gupta had earlier served as the Health Commissioner of Gujarat.

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