Zohra Chatterji

Ms. Zohra Chatterji retired in 2014 as Secretary, Ministry of Textiles in the Government of India. She belongs to the 1979 Batch of the IAS, UP Cadre and has held several important positions in her home state including Secretary and Director Industries, Labour Commissioner, Secretary & DG Tourism, Secretary & Project Director Basic Education etc. Her last assignment in UP was Principal Secretary IT & Industries when she was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

She joined the Government of India on Central deputation in 2007 as Joint Secretary, Broadcasting in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. She became Member Secretary, National Commission for Women on promotion as Additional Secretary and was associated with drafting landmark amendments to the Criminal Law Amendment Bill and the Act for Prevention of Harassment of Women at the Workplace. She went on to serve as Additional Secretary Coal where she also held additional charge of CMD Coal India as its first woman CMD and chaired the IMG for monitoring and de-allocation of coal blocks. She became Secretary to the Government of India; Ministry of Textiles in Feb.2013. She has a keen interest in handlooms and handicrafts and introduced many new initiatives for the same, including the setting up of a Hastkala Academy in New Delhi for documentation, promotion and preservation of handicrafts. Post retirement, Ms. Chatterji is serving on the Board of NCML and Travel Corporation of India (TCI) as an independent Director. She was also the former non-executive Chairman of the UP Institute of Design.

Ms. Chatterji is a graduate in Physics from Miranda House, New Delhi. She did her post-graduation in English Literature from AMU and had her schooling in Loreto Convent, Lucknow. She is currently pursuing a PhD from the University of Lucknow and is the President of Alliance Francaise in Lucknow, an organization supported by the Government of France for the teaching of French language and the promotion of Indo-French cultural relations. Her many interests include painting, photography, dramatics and writing.