Meet woman, civil servant for 30 years, now becomes first female chief secretary of...

As the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, Sujata Saunik, a senior IAS officer, assumed her role on Sunday. By becoming the first female Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, she also made history with this. IAS officer Saunik took Nitin Keer's place, who had retired.  Till June 2025, she will continue to hold this role. She's actually going to retire the following year. At one point in time, Saunik held the position of Additional Secretary in the state Home Department.
 
The 1987 batch IAS officer Saunik was born in Haryana on June 15, 1965. In contrast, Bihar is the birthplace of her spouse, retired IAS Manoj Saunik. Maharashtra's Chief Secretary is another position he held. From the same batch, both are IAS officers.

IAS Sujata Saunik attended Chandigarh for her formal education and college. She graduated from Punjab University with a master's degree in history. She received a gold medal for excelling in her post-graduation. In addition, she has held a TechMi Fellowship at the School of Public Health at Harvard University. IAS Sujata Saunik has extensive experience working with the UN in various nations. From 2000 to 2005, she served as Prizren's municipal administrator while on deputation to the UN Mission, which is Kosovo's second-largest city. She carried out a great deal of projects for the development of community buildings, markets, hospitals, schools, and water and sanitation systems in the Kosovo municipalities of Prizren and Obolic during this time.
 
In addition, IAS Sujata Saunik served as a deputation to the UN Mission in 1992–1993 to help with voter registration and the first democratic elections in Cambodia, a country in Southeast Asia. In the meantime, the results of the preliminary Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2024 were made public on Monday by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Those who made it through the preliminary exams will be invited to the mains. September 20 is when the UPSC mains exam is scheduled to start, according to the commission's exam calendar.