The Union government on Wednesday (Jun 16) appointed Aashish Chandorkar, one of India's leading public policy commentator and a frequent Swarajya contributor, as Counsellor at the level of director in India's Permanent Mission in the World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva for a period of three years.

The appointment of Chandorkar, who currently heads the India consulting arm of a global technology firm, represents a first at the Mission and comes ahead of a crucial ministerial conference of the WTO later this year.

The appointment is seen as a signal by the government that it is ready to avail the expertise of private sector talent for critical roles. A structured hiring process to bring lateral talent in the government has made very slow progress so far.

“Aashish Chandorkar, a private person, is appointed to the post of Councillor, Permanent Mission of India, WTO, Geneva at director level for a period of three years,” the department of commerce said in an office order.

A management consultant with 21 years of experience, Chandorkar has worked in global firms heading business and technology transformation projects for clients across industries and geographies.

Chandorkar is also the co-founder of Smahi Foundation, a public policy and research focusing at the intersection of governance, entrepreneurship and technology.

Chandorkar is also a frequent host of Bharatvaarta, one of India's fastest growing podcast platform which specialises in long-form discussions on issues of policy, politics and culture.

Chandorkar has been a prolific policy commentator writing in several publication on policy issues in the domain of trade, business, technology, economics and politics.

He recently authored a report on Indian metro systems analysing the growth story of metro systems in Indian cities and implementation lessons that can be taken from previous projects.