After R Subrahmanyam, IAS officer Amit Khare took charge as the Higher Education Secretary on December 13. A 1985 Batch IAS officer, Khare, was also holding an extra charge as the Secretary of Department of School Education and Literacy, since October.

Khare, who is also the former Information and Broadcasting Secretary is an alumnus of St Stephen's College, Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad. He is best known for busting Bihar's infamous Fodder Scam when he was the Deputy Commissioner of West Singhbhum. A few implicated in the case where the then Bihar Cheif Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and former Chief Minister, Jagannath Mishra. The scandal led to Yadav resigning the post of the Chief Minister.

Later, Khare was Secretary, Board of Revenue, Bihar, the first Commissioner of Commercial Taxes of Jharkhand, Additional Finance Commissioner, Jharkhand and Principal Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary, Finance & Planning Department, Jharkhand. He also served as Secretary, Human Resource Development, Secretary Information & Public Relations Department, Jharkhand and Principal Secretary to Governor, Jharkhand as also the Vice-Chancellor of Ranchi University. He was also the Joint Secretary, Higher Education from August 2008 to August 2014 looking after UNESCO, Education Policy and Book Promotion & Copyright.

The former Higher Education secretary R Subrahmanyam has been moved from the post of secretary, higher education, to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.