In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Suman Billa has been appointed as the Director General (Tourism) in the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Billa, a 1996-batch officer from the Kerala cadre, was previously serving as the Additional Secretary in the same ministry, a post he assumed in February 2024 following his return from the state government of Kerala, where he held the position of Principal Secretary for Industries and NORKA.
From 2014 to 2019, he served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, playing a vital role in the formulation and execution of key national tourism policies. Following his central posting, he was appointed Director of Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Development at the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in Madrid, where he contributed to global efforts in sustainable tourism and cross-border collaboration.
His latest appointment comes amidst a wide-ranging administrative reshuffle announced by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which includes 25 new appointments to Additional Secretary-level roles across various ministries and 15 in situ promotions to the same rank.
Meanwhile, Mugdha Sinha, a 1999-batch IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, has been appointed as the new Managing Director of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). She will serve at the rank and pay scale of an Additional Secretary. Prior to this, she was serving as Director General of Tourism in the Ministry of Tourism, where she was actively involved in national-level tourism planning and policy execution.
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Sinha’s career has spanned diverse sectors within government. In 2022, she served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, giving her broad exposure to India’s heritage and cultural promotion, and aligning well with her new responsibilities at ITDC. Her promotion follows her empanelment for Additional Secretary rank in May 2024.
