Additional secretary to the Government of India

Additional Secretary (often abbreviated as AS, GoI or Union Additional Secretary or Additional Secretary to Government of India) is a post and a rank under the Central Staffing Scheme of the Government of India. The authority for creation of this post solely rests with Cabinet of India.

Additional secretary is mostly a career civil servant, generally from the Indian Administrative Service, and is a government official of high seniority. The civil servants who hold this rank are either from All India Services or Central Civil Services. All promotions and appointments to this rank and post are directly made by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

In the functioning of Government of India, an additional secretary is the administrative head of a wing in a department. Additional secretaries in the Union Government is analogous to Lieutenant General or Major General (PSO) in Indian Armed Forces. In the Department of Military Affairs of the Ministry of Defence, an officer from all the three armed forces of the rank of Lieutenant General and equivalent is currently appointed and designated as Additional Secretary (Army/Navy/AirForce).

Additional secretaries rank 25th on Order of Precedence of India.