In a major bureaucratic reshuffle that saw several Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers being given new assignments, the Tamil Nadu government has appointed Dr Santhosh Babu as the new secretary of the state's Information Technology Department.

The medical doctor turned Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1995 batch will replace B. Chandramohan as the secretary of Tamil Nadu IT Department.

An alumnus of the Government Medical College, Trivandrum, Dr Babu's earlier assignments include Chairman and Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation, Officer on Special Duty at Chief Minister’s Special Cell at the Secretariat in Chennai, and Commissioner, Directorate of Indian Medicine & Homeopathy, Tamil Nadu, among others.

Besides being a qualified medical doctor, Dr Babu is also a Chevening Gurukul Scholar from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an LKY Fellow and MPM Degree holder from the National University of Singapore and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

He is also among the few IAS officers who maintains his own website. "This personal website was developed because, I believe I have done tremendously transformational and inspirational work within the Government, within the same 'system', the same Government Servants and the same politicians! This site is not for chest thumping, trumpeting or bragging of any sort," he says in his profile.

Fascinated by magicians like Cyril Takayama, Yif, Dynamo, David Blaine, Chris Angels, he believes that "the Civil Service is not for self-service; it is for societal transformation".