NEW DELHI / AGARTALA, May 25 (TIWN) Senior IAS officer G. Mohan Kumar on Monday assumed charge as the defence secretary, succeeding R.K. Mathur, who retired from the office on Sunday.A 1979-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Odisha cadre, Mohan Kumar holds a Master's degree in chemistry and an MBA from Britain.
He has worked in various ministries and departments, including Steel, Water Resources, Rural Development, Fisheries, Export Development and VAT Administration.Mohan Kumar was the secretary, defence production, before he was made the defence secretary.

A 1977-batch IAS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre, Mr Mathur was serving as Defence Secretary  in the Defence Ministry.

Mr Mathur served as Additional Secretary and Special Secretary in Department of Defence from September 2008 to October 2011.

Born on November 25, 1953, he has done his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and M.Tech in Industrial Engineering from IIT, Delhi.

He also holds a Master in Business Administration from ICPE, Slovenia. From 2000 till August, 2008, he served in Tripura in various departments as Principal Secretary and later as Chief Secretary.

As Secretary (Defence Production), Mr Mathur has been involved in modernisation process of the defence public sector undertakings and Ordnance Factories under his department.

He was instrumental in proposing changes in the Defence Procurement Procedures for making acquisition process more transparent and enhancing indigenisation of defence production.