CBC chief Manish Desai appointed principal director general of PIB

The senior Indian Information Service officer Manish Desai was appointed as the principal director general of the PIB on Wednesday, it said.

A 1989 IIS officer, Desai took over the CBC last year. He will assume charge of PIB on the superannuation of Rajesh Malhotra, who has been at the helm of the media outreach unit since 2022.

Desai has also worked as the CBC chief executive officer of the advertising and public communication arm of the Government of India.

The work spans the entire spectrum of communication activities across print, electronic, outdoor, transit and new media. From November 2019 to January 2020, Desai was the director general of the Registrar of Newspapers of India (RNI).

For six years, from 2012 to 2018, he served as additional director general (ADG) PIB. He has also served as the director general of the West Zone PIB in Mumbai.

In his over 30-year-long career, Desai has also worked in All India Radio and the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he headed the PIB Western Region operations handling varied media events that involved the participation of the president, vice president, the prime minister and federal ministers of the Government of India.

The ministry has further appointed Bhupendra Kainthola, former principal director general of PIB, Kolkata, as the press registrar.

Incumbent press registrar Dhirendra Ojha will take over from Desai as CBC chief, said the Union ministry.

PIB is the nodal agency of the Indian government to disseminate information – marked its centennial anniversary in June this year.

Set up in Shimla in June 1919 as a small cell – Central Publicity Board – under the home ministry of the colonial government, its primary task was to prepare an annual report on India for presentation to the British Parliament.

The first head of the publicity cell was Dr LF Rushbrook Williams of Allahabad University who was designated as an officer on special duty.