The Centre has appointed senior IAS officer Faiz Ahmed Kidwai as a part-time member of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, the regulator for the National Pension System.
A gazette notification from the Ministry of Finance's Department of Financial Services, dated 29 September, said the appointment takes effect immediately.
The notification, issued as S.O. 5352E under Section 4 of the PFRDA Act, 2013, describes Kidwai as Additional Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training. He will serve for the duration of his tenure in his present appointment or until further orders, whichever is earlier. The notice is signed by Economic Adviser Samir Kumar.
Part-time members sit on the PFRDA board alongside its chairperson and whole-time members, and take part in decisions on the regulation and development of the pension sector.
Who Is Faiz Ahmed Kidwai?
Kidwai is a 1996 batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre. Uttar Pradesh is his domicile state, and he holds a BA Honours in History, according to a bureaucracy-tracking portal that compiles officer profiles from the DoPT civil list.
He was most recently in the public eye as head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the country's aviation regulator. He was appointed Director General of the DGCA in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary in a senior-level reshuffle, with the recruitment rules of the post kept in abeyance.
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On 31 March this year, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet moved him to the DoPT as Additional Secretary. Vir Vikram Yadav, an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, replaced him at the DGCA.
The DGCA was then monitoring airline safety, fleet expansion and airport readiness amid rapid growth in air travel.
The same profile portal lists 23 postings across his career, including a three-year stint as consul general, his longest single assignment. That listing puts his service at about 30 years.
Why It Matters
The PFRDA regulates the NPS, the Atal Pension Yojana and other pension schemes, and is central to the government's push on retirement savings for both government employees and private-sector workers.
A DoPT officer's appointment to the board is notable because the DoPT handles service conditions and pension-related matters for central government staff.
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